Opinion ID: 533854
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Claims Raised in District Court

Text: 19 In order to state a cause of action under section 1983, the NAACP must prove: (1) that the confederate flag is flown by individuals acting under the cloak of state authority, Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 184-87, 81 S.Ct. 473, 482-84, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961); and (2) that the flying of the flag deprives them of some right, privilege, or immunity secured by the Constitution or by law. See 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983. 20 There is no dispute regarding the under color of state law requirement. It seems clear that a flag flown on the state capitol dome is flown under state authority. 5 The parties dispute, however, the question of whether the NAACP has been deprived of any rights. On September 23, 1988, the district court ordered both parties to submit briefs regarding the deprivation of some federally protected right. The NAACP apparently argued that the flying of the flag was tantamount to holding public property for racially discriminatory purposes and that it denied its members their rights to equal education, equal economic opportunity, and equal protection. Presumably the NAACP makes these claims under the Fourteenth Amendment. 21 Certainly the NAACP has a right to equal protection of the laws, in education and otherwise. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 (1954). The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from denying to anyone the equal protection of the laws. 6 As the Supreme Court has stated, however, the Amendment requires equal laws, not equal results. Personnel Adm'r of Massachusetts v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 273, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 2293, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979). It is true, as the NAACP points out, that a racially motivated statute may be unconstitutional even if it is facially neutral. Hunter v. Underwood, 471 U.S. 222, 231-32, 105 S.Ct. 1916, 1921-22, 85 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985). Because there are two accounts of why Alabama flies the flag, however, see p. 2, supra, it is not certain that the flag was hoisted for racially discriminatory reasons. Moreover, there is no unequal application of the state policy; all citizens are exposed to the flag. Citizens of all races are offended by its position. 22 Further, the NAACP has advanced many discrimination suits in federal and state courts over the 25 years since the flag was raised. Yet it has never requested that the flag be brought down as part of the equitable relief requested in any of those cases. In Smith v. St. Tammany Parish School Bd., 448 F.2d 414 (5th Cir.1971), the Fifth Circuit upheld an order banning symbols or indicia expressing the school board's or its employee's desire to maintain segregated schools ... Id. at 415 (emphasis in original). The Smith decision, however, was based upon the broad discretion vested in the district courts to achieve the constitutional end of desegregation. Id. at 415; cf. Green v. County School Bd., 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). There is no legal basis for prohibiting the flying of a confederate flag on government grounds outside the realm of desegregation effort. The NAACP did not ask that the flag be removed in conjunction with desegregation attempts or other civil rights actions. 7 23 These are the only arguments advanced by the NAACP in support of their claim that the flag infringes on a protected right in violation of section 1983. When a non-movant produces no specific factual proof in support of an essential element of its case, summary judgment is appropriate. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323, 106 S.Ct. at 2552. 24