Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/312/496/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:24:47+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 312 › Railroad Comm'n of Texas v. Pullman Co.
If a state court can easily resolve a certain issue based on state law, a federal court should not intercede to resolve the case.
Some trains in Texas used only one sleeping car during periods of light passenger traffic. Porters, who were mostly African-American, supervised the cars in these situations instead of conductors, who were mostly white. The Railroad Commission of Texas ordered sleeping cars to be operated only when they could be continuously under the oversight of a conductor. The Pullman Co., a manufacturer of sleeping cars, and the railroad companies that used this arrangement sought an injunction in a federal court against the enforcement of this order. They argued that it violated state law and the Constitution. The porters, who intervened in the case, also asserted that the order discriminated on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs succeeded in obtaining an injunction, persuading the lower court that Texas laws did not justify the Commission's order.
When possible, disputes that raise a sensitive and important social question should be resolved under state law rather than the Constitution. The case may be resolved according to whether the order is consistent with the Commission's power to prevent discrimination. A state court could address this issue, and the decision that it reaches might obviate the need for a federal court to decide the case based on issues that could cause conflicts between the state and federal judicial systems. The federal action should not proceed, therefore, until a state court has reviewed the case on its merits.
Under the abstention doctrine, federal courts generally refrain from addressing a matter that involves a preliminary consideration of issues that arise under state law. As with other cases in this area, the key concerns here include finality and consistent resolutions.
A railroad company, some of whose trains in Texas had each but one Pullman sleeping car and that in charge of a colored porter subject to the control of the train conductor, assailed in the federal court, as unauthorized by Texas statutes and as violative of the Federal Constitution, a regulation by a state commission which would require that such cars be continuously in charge of an employee "having the rank and position of a Pullman conductor." Pullman porters, intervening, also attacked the order, adopting the railroad's objections but urging mainly that it discriminated against Negroes in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, Pullman porters being Negroes and the conductors white.
1. Decision of the issue of unconstitutional discrimination should be withheld pending proceedings to be taken in the state courts to secure a definitive construction of the state statute. P. 312 U. S. 498.
2. The federal courts, when asked for the extraordinary remedy of injunction, will exercise a sound discretion in the public interest to avoid needless friction with state policies that may result from tentative constructions of state statutes and premature adjudication on their constitutionality. P. 312 U. S. 500.
APPEAL from a decree of the District Court of three judges which enjoined the enforcement of an order of the above-named Railroad Commission.
cars are continuously in the charge of an employee . . . having the rank and position of Pullman conductor."
Thereupon, the Pullman Company and the railroads affected brought this action in a federal district court to enjoin the Commission's order. Pullman porters were permitted to intervene as complainants, and Pullman conductors entered the litigation in support of the order. Three judges having been convened, Judicial Code, § 266, as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 380, the court enjoined enforcement of the order. From this decree, the case came here directly. Judicial Code, § 238, as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 345.
The Pullman Company and the railroads assailed the order as unauthorized by Texas law, as well as violative of the Equal Protection, the Due Process, and the Commerce Clauses of the Constitution. The intervening porters adopted these objections, but mainly objected to the order as a discrimination against Negroes in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Texas Civil Statutes, and therefore the last word on the statutory authority of the Railroad Commission in this case, belongs neither to us nor to the district court, but to the supreme court of Texas. In this situation, a federal court of equity is asked to decide an issue by making a tentative answer which may be displaced tomorrow by a state adjudication. Glenn v. Field Packing Co., 290 U. S. 177; Lee v. Bickell, 292 U. S. 415. The reign of law is hardly promoted if an unnecessary ruling of a federal court is thus supplanted by a controlling decision of a state court. The resources of equity are equal to a adjustment that will avoid the waste of a tentative decision, as well as the friction of a premature constitutional adjudication.
cf. Hawks v. Hamill, 288 U. S. 52, 288 U. S. 61. These cases reflect a doctrine of abstention appropriate to our federal system whereby the federal courts, "exercising a wise discretion," restrain their authority because of "scrupulous regard for the rightful independence of the state governments" and for the smooth working of the federal judiciary. See Cavanaugh v. Looney, 248 U. S. 453, 248 U. S. 457; Di Giovanni v. Camden Ins. Assn., 296 U. S. 64, 296 U. S. 73. This use of equitable powers is a contribution of the courts in furthering the harmonious relation between state and federal authority without the need of rigorous congressional restriction of those powers. Compare 37 Stat. 1013; Judicial Code, § 24(1), as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 41(1); 47 Stat. 70, 29 U.S.C. §§ 101-15.
Regard for these important considerations of policy in the administration of federal equity jurisdiction is decisive here. If there was no warrant in state law for the Commission's assumption of authority, there is an end of the litigation; the constitutional issue does not arise. The law of Texas appears to furnish easy and ample means for determining the Commission's authority. Article 6453 of the Texas Civil Statutes gives a review of such an order in the state courts. Or, if there are difficulties in the way of this procedure of which we have not been apprised, the issue of state law may be settled by appropriate action on the part of the State to enforce obedience to the order. Beal v. Missouri Pacific R.;Co., supra; Article 6476, Texas Civil Statutes. In the absence of any showing that these obvious methods for securing a definitive ruling in the state courts cannot be pursued with full protection of the constitutional claim, the district court should exercise its wise discretion by staying its hands. Compare Thompson v. Magnolia Co., 309 U. S. 478.
of proceedings, to be brought with reasonable promptness, in the state court in conformity with this opinion. Compare Atlas Ins. Co. v. Southern, Inc., 306 U. S. 563, 306 U. S. 573, and cases cited.
"Power and authority are hereby conferred upon the Railroad Commission of Texas over all railroads, and suburban, belt, and terminal railroads, and over all public wharves, docks, piers, elevators, warehouses, sheds, tracks, and other property used in connection therewith in this State, and over all persons, associations, and corporations, private or municipal, owning or operating such railroad, wharf, dock, pier, elevator, warehouse, shed, track or other property to fix, and it is hereby made the duty of the said Commission to adopt all necessary rates, charges and regulations, to govern and regulate such railroads, persons, associations and corporations, and to correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination in the rates, charges and tolls of such railroads, persons, associations and corporations, and to fix division of rates, charges and regulations between railroads and other utilities and common carriers where a division is proper and correct, and to prevent any and all other abuses in the conduct of their business and to do and perform such other duties and details in connection therewith as may be provided by law."

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