Court Opinion

ID: 9425504
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:54.797206+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:55.995048
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Marshall concur, dissenting.
The respondents in this case are black and indigent citizens of Cairo, Illinois. Suing in federal court, they alleged that since the early 1960’s black citizens of Cairo have been actively seeking equal opportunity and treatment in employment, housing, education, and ordinary day-to-day relations with the white citizens and officials of Cairo. In this quest, blacks have engaged in a boycott of local merchants deemed to have engaged in racial discrimination.
Alleging that this quest for equality has generated substantial antagonism from white governmental officials, respondents brought a class action under 42 U. S. C. §§ 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1985, seeking to represent citizens of Cairo who have been subjected in the past, and continue to be subjected, to the allegedly discriminatory and unconstitutional administration of criminal justice in Alexander County, Illinois, which includes Cairo. Among their other claims, respondents alleged that petitioners Michael O’Shea and Dorothy Spomer, both now judges in Alexander County,1 engage in acts which deprive them and *506members of their class of their constitutional rights. These judges allegedly set bond in criminal cases without regard to the facts of individual cases and as punishment, and not merely to assure the appearance of defendants at trial; impose higher sentences and harsher conditions of sentencing on black than on white citizens; and require respondents and members of their class, when charged with violations of city ordinances which carry fines and possible jail penalties, to pay for a trial by jury if the fine cannot be paid.
I
An injunction was sought against this conduct. The District Court referred obliquely to want of jurisdiction, but, focusing on the fact that the complaint sought review of matters of judicial discretion, concluded that the action should be dismissed because judges and magistrates are immune from liability for acts done in performance of their duties. In reversing and remanding the case to the District Court, the Court of Appeals held that the action was not barred by the doctrine of judicial immunity. The Court of Appeals also held that the complaint contained sufficiently specific factual aver-ments to satisfy Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8 (a). 468 F. 2d 389.
This Court now decides for the first time in the course of this litigation that the complaint is deficient because it does not state a “case or controversy” within the meaning of Art. III.
The fact that no party has raised that issue in this closely contested case is no barrier, of course, to our consideration of it. But the reasoning and result reached by the Court are to say the least a tour de force and quite inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint, which are within constitutional requirements.
*507We know from the record and oral argument that Cairo, Illinois, is boiling with racial conflicts. This class action brought under 42 U. S. C. §§ 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1985 is to remedy vast invasions of civil rights. The Court, however, says that it is not a “case or controversy” because none of the named plaintiffs has alleged infringement of his rights and the fact that other members of the class may have been injured is not enough. As to the latter, Bailey v. Patterson, 369 U. S. 31, 32-33, is cited in support. But in Bailey the named persons were given standing to sue, the statement that “[t]hey cannot represent a class of whom they are not a part,” id., at 32-33, being dictum and its only authority being McCabe v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 235 U. S. 151, 162-163, which was not a class action. Nor was the question on which the case is made to turn resolved in Indiana Employment Division v. Burney, 409 U. S. 540. For we only held that where the named plaintiff had received relief and nothing appeared as to the relief, if any, granted to members of the class, the possible question of mootness should be resolved by the District Court. Even so, there were dissents. The upshot is that one crucial issue on which the Court makes this case turn has not been decided by the Court and was never argued here. At the very least we should have a full-dress argument on that point.
But I do not press the point, for the amended complaint is sufficiently specific to warrant a trial.
As respects O’Shea, the Magistrate, and Spomer, the Circuit Judge, the charges concerning named plaintiffs are as follows:
(1) that excessive bonds have been required in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments because petitioners follow an unofficial bond schedule without regard to the facts of individual cases;
*508(2) on information and belief, that petitioners set higher sentences and impose harsher conditions for respondents and members of their class than for white persons;
(3) that, where the named plaintiffs have been fined and at times sentenced to jail and cannot pay the fines, these judges have required them to pay for a trial by jury-
Moreover, the amended complaint alleges that O’Shea and Spomer “continue to engage in a pattern and practice” which “has deprived and continues to deprive” the named plaintiffs and members of their class of their constitutional rights. Moreover, it is alleged that since early in the 1960’s the blacks of Cairo and some whites have been actively and peaceably seeking to end discrimination in Cairo and that those activities have generated and continue to generate tension and antagonism in Cairo.
It is also alleged that the police commissioner in Cairo “has denied and continues to deny to plaintiffs and members of their class their constitutional rights in the following ways:
“(a) Defendant has made or caused to be made or cooperated in the making of arrests and the filing of charges against plaintiffs and members of their class where such charges are not warranted and are merely for the purpose of harassment and to discourage and prevent plaintiffs and their class from exercising their constitutional rights.
“(b) Defendant has made or caused to be made or cooperated in the making of arrests and the filing of charges against plaintiffs and members of their class where there may be some colorable basis to the arrest or charge, but the crime defined in the charge is much harsher than is warranted by the *509facts and is far more severe than like charges would be against a white person.”
These allegations support the likelihood that the named plaintiffs as well as members of their class will be arrested in the future and therefore will be brought before O'Shea and Spomer and be subjected to the alleged discriminatory practices in the administration of justice.
These allegations of past and continuing wrongdoings clearly state a case or controversy in the Art. Ill sense. They are as specific as those alleged in Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U. S. 411, and in Doe v. Bolton, 410 U. S. 179, where we held that cases or controversies were presented.
Specificity of proof may not be forthcoming; but specificity of charges is clear.
What has been alleged here is not only wrongs done to named plaintiffs, but a recurring pattern of wrongs which establishes, if proved, that the legal regime under control of the whites in Cairo, Illinois, is used over and over again to keep the blacks from exercising First Amendment rights, to discriminate against them, to keep from the blacks the protection of the law in their lawful activities, to weight the scales of justice repeatedly on the side of white prejudices and against black protests, fears, and suffering. This is a more pervasive scheme for suppression of blacks and their civil rights than I have ever seen. It may not survive a trial. But if this case does not present a “case or controversy” involving the named plaintiffs, then that concept has been so watered down as to be no longer recognizable. This will please the white superstructure, but it does violence to the conception of evenhanded justice envisioned by the Constitution.
Suits under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 are exceptions to the absolute bar against federal injunctions directed at state *510court proceedings provided in 28 U. S. C. § 2283.2 See Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U. S. 225. It will be much more appropriate to pass on the nature of any equitable relief to be granted after the case has been tried. It may be that when the case is ended, no injunction against any state proceeding will be asked for or will seem appropriate. Or the injunctive relief in final analysis may come down to very narrow and discrete orders prohibiting precise practices. The Court labels this an “ongoing federal audit of state criminal'proceedings.” That of course is a regime that we do not foster. But the Federal Constitution is supreme and if the power of the white power-structure in Cairo, Illinois, is so great as to disregard it, extraordinary relief is demanded. I would cross the bridge of remedies only when the precise contours of the problem have been established after a trial.
To repeat, in the instant case, there are allegations that state lower-court judges are willfully discriminating in their sentencing determinations and are imposing excessive bail. The effects of such results may well persist quite aside from the disposition of the underlying substantive charges at trial or on appeal, and may well be functionally unreviewable. The Court of Appeals observed, 468 F. 2d, at 408, that the individual defendant in a criminal case will find it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain review of a sentence within statutory limits unless it is manifestly harsh or unjustified, citing the Illinois rule that “imposition of sentence is a matter of judicial discretion, and in the absence of a manifest abuse of that discretion it will not be altered *511by a reviewing court.” People v. Bonner, 37 Ill. 2d 553, 563, 229 N. E. 2d 527, 533 (1967), cert. denied, 392 U. S. 910 (1968).
Furthermore, the respondents do not primarily allege individual instances of excessively harsh treatment, on an absolute scale, of black and indigent defendants, but rather a pattern of discriminatory treatment, especially in favor of prosperous white defendants. Such allegations would amount to denials of equal protection even if blacks and poor whites were not subject to sentences which were so excessive that they constituted manifest abuses of discretion, as long as wealthy whites were at the same time receiving relatively lenient sentences from the same judges. A single instance of sentencing by itself might not strike the conscience of a reviewing court, but when coupled with a pattern of discriminatory treatment could well justify the equitable intervention of a federal court. A class suit where evidence could be developed showing a pattern of discriminatory bail and sentencing decisions by the petitioners would be the one appropriate vehicle in which these claims could be developed.
Whether respondents could come forward with such evidence, and whether the Federal District Court in the exercise of its equitable discretion could frame suitable relief are, of course, questions which can be answered only after a trial on the merits. The resolution of those issues would then be properly reviewable. But the principles of abstention and comity should not bar this suit ab initio.
II
Because I believe that the complaint is sufficient to state an actual “case or controversy,” I would reach the further question, on the merits, whether equitable relief may be warranted in the circumstances of this case. I agree, nonetheless, with my Brother Blackmun that the *512Court’s discussion in Part II of its opinion, whether a case for equitable relief was stated, is an advisory opinion since the Court has determined that there is no “case or controversy” in the Article III sense.
APPENDIX TO OPINION OF DOUGLAS, J., DISSENTING
There are seven statutes in addition to 42 U. S. C. § 1983 which the Court has recognized constitute “express exceptions” to the policy of nonintervention in state proceedings enunciated by the anti-injunction statute: (1) The Bankruptcy Act, 11 U. S. C. § 1 et seq., specifically recognized by Congress as an exception to 28 U. S. C. § 2283. See Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U. S. 225, 233. (2) The Interpleader Act of 1936, 28 U. S. C. § 2361, allowing federal courts to restrain prosecution of state court suits involving property involved in federal interpleader actions. See Treinies v. Sunshine Mining Co., 308 U. S. 66, 74. (3) The 1851 Act limiting the liability of shipowners by providing for the cessation of proceedings against them when they have made a deposit equal to the value of their ships with a federal court, 46 U. S. C. § 185. See Providence & N. Y. S. S. Co. v. Hill Mfg. Co., 109 U. S. 578, 599-600. (4) The Frazier-Lemke Farm Mortgage Act, 11 U. S. C. § 203 (s)(2) (1958 ed.). See Kalb v. Feuerstein, 308 U. S. 433. (5) The Federal Habeas Corpus Act, 28 U. S. C. § 2251, permitting a stay of state court proceedings when a federal habeas action is pending. See Ex Parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241, 248-249. (6) Section 205 (a) of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 33. See Porter v. Dicken, 328 U. S. 252, 255. (7) Legislation providing for the removal of litigation to federal courts and the simultaneous cessation of state court proceedings, 28 U. S. C. § 1446 (e). See French v. Hay, 22 Wall. 250.
*513This Court has also recognized the power of a federal court to stay proceedings in a state court to prevent relitigation of an issue already decided in a federal proceeding. See Supreme Tribe of Ben-Hur v. Cauble, 255 U. S. 356; Julian v. Central Trust Co., 193 U. S. 93, 112. It has recognized the power of a federal court to enjoin state court proceedings to protect the jurisdiction which a federal court has already acquired over a res. See Kline v. Burke Construction Co., 260 U. S. 226; Toucey v. New York Life Ins. Co., 314 U. S. 118, 135-136. And we have found it proper for a federal court to directly enjoin state proceedings when the injunction was sought by either the United States, Leiter Minerals, Inc. v. United States, 352 U. S. 220, or by a federal agency asserting superior federal interests, see NLRB v. Nash-Finch Co., 404 U. S. 138.

 O’Shea, Magistrate of Alexander County Circuit Court when this suit was instituted, became an Associate Judge in the county on July 1, 1971.

 Title 28 U. S. C. § 2283 provides that:
“A court of the United States may not grant an injunction to stay proceedings in a State court except as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, or where necessary in aid of its jurisdiction, or to protect or effectuate its judgments.”