Opinion ID: 1494037
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: As to the Enforcement of the Decree.

Text: The appellants contend that it is not feasible for the court below to enforce the provisions of the decree entered by it and that therefore it should not have been made. Giles v. Harris, 189 U.S. 475, 23 S. Ct. 639, 47 L.Ed. 909. More specifically, the appellants' contention is that it would require the court below to exercise supervisory powers over the administration of government in Jersey City and to interfere with the orderly exercise of governmental duties. The appellants also contend that the court below has in effect constituted itself an ordinance making body and has involved itself directly in the administration of the public business of Jersey City. We consider these objections to the decree to be without merit and consider it unnecessary to treat them in detail. We state that in our opinion the decree is enforcible and does not substitute the will of the court for that of the governing authority of Jersey City. Moreover, the decree is carefully worded. The police are left free to pursue the duties placed upon them by law, and in so far as they act within the scope of the law their activities are in no wise interfered with or hindered. The authorities of Jersey City, by the terms of the decree carefully drawn by the court below, are free to carry out their duties in respect to preserving the safety of the lives and property of the inhabitants of Jersey City within the structure of existing law. In our opinion, however, paragraph 4 (d) of the decree requires modification in that it enjoins the appellants from enforcing their deliberate policy of forbidding the appellees or their sympathizers to hold meetings upon the public streets or places of Jersey City other than parks, unless and until the appellants, acting in their official capacities, adopt and enforce a deliberate policy of forbidding meetings of any kind upon the streets or public places of Jersey City, other than parks. For the reasons heretofore stated it is our opinion that the clause of paragraph (d) beginning with the word and in the seventh line thereof and ending with the word City [2] in the twelfth line thereof should be stricken from the injunction, enlarging it as will appear.