Court Opinion

ID: 9679822
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:09:33.295583+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:21.483585
License: Public Domain

Ed. F. McFaddin, Justice (concurring). I heartily concur with the result finally reached in this matter: we now have a unanimous Court denying the Petition for Integration of the Bar. Since this matter of integration has been pending for so long a time, I desire to place of record some facts that may not have been mentioned; and I now list them in chronological order: 1. The records of this Court show that on June 26, 1944, a Committee composed of J. D. Head of Texarkana, J. F. Loughborough of Little Bock, and Abe Collins of DeQueen, presented to this Court the motion of the Arkansas Bar Association requesting that this Court order the integration of the Bar. That motion was taken under consideration. 2. Because many lawyers were in the Armed Forces in 1944, this Court decided to await their return before dealing with the matter of integration. Then in 1947, 1948 and 1949, petitions were circulated1 favoring integration ; and in 1950 the said petitions were filed in this Court, purporting to he signed by 803 attorneys. These are the petitions mentioned in the majority opinion of this Court of April 27,1953. Oral arguments were heard in 1950 for integration, and briefs pro and con were directed to be filed by September 30, 1950. 3. In the fall of 1951, this Court conducted a ballot by mail on this matter of integration: a ballot was sent to each of the 2,371 attorneys enrolled in this Court. The result of that ballot was: 592 for integration and 455 against integration; showing that only 1,047 of the 2,371 attorneys voted on the question. 4. The Court kept the matter of integration in reserve; and on April 27, 1953, there was delivered the majority opinion which ordered integration. Petitions for rehearing were duly filed. Pour printed briefs containing the names of several scores of attorneys and several County Bar Associations, were filed in opposition to the ordered integration. No brief was filed favorable to integration during this time for rehearing. 5. The Bar Association of Arkansas — the voluntary Bar of this State — met in annual session on May 15, 1953, and by vote of 195 to 165 adopted the following Resolution: “WHEREAS, on April 27,1953, the Supreme Court of Arkansas, in its opinion In the Matter of the Integration of the Bar (No. 166), by a divided court expressed its ‘approval of the request for an integrated bar,’ the ‘distinguishing characteristic’ of which is that every attorney must be a member of an all-inclusive bar association and contribute to its support, and “WHEREAS the Bar Association of Arkansas, in annual convention assembled — believing (1) that the majority of the practicing lawyers in this State are opposed to an integrated bar, (2) that membership in a bar association should be voluntary, not compulsory, (3) that no lawyer should be compelled, over his objection, to support the activities of a bar association, (4) that the Supreme Court of Arkansas, under Amendment No. 28 to the Constitution of Arkansas, has ample power to regulate the ‘practice of law and the professional conduct of attorneys-at-law’ and has effectively exercised that power by establishing the Bar Rules Committee, which has given general satisfaction, and (5) that there is no necessity or occasion for the integration of the bar, —considers that the Supreme Court of Arkansas erred in said opinion, and “WHEREAS said opinion of April 27, 1953, is now pending on rehearing, “NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Bar Association of Arkansas, believing that every licensed lawyer in this State is a party to this proceeding, urges the Supreme Court of Arkansas to reconsider its opinion in this matter and, on re-hearing, to reverse said opinion and rescind its approval of the request for an integrated bar.” 6. The Justices, making the majority opinion, decided to again submit the question of integration to all the enrolled attorneys of this Court. The result of such June, 1953, ballot by mail was: opposed to integration, 1,003; favorable to integration, 489. With these results, the previous majority, that made the opinion of April 27, 1953, has joined the previous minority; and we now have a decision by a unanimous Court denying the integration of the Bar. So after nine years — June, 1944, to July, 1953 — this Court has reached a final decision on this matter of integration. In the foregoing I have given only a factual and chronological listing of events. In the supplemental opinion on rehearing it is stated that the previous majority reaffirms “the principles approved in our original opinion. ’ ’ I reaffirm the statements contained in my original dissent. The resolution of the Bar Association of Arkansas — as heretofore copied — contains the arguments against integration which seem to me to he correct.   That the petitions were circulated during 1947, 1948 and 1949 is stated in a letter sent by Honorable Abe Collins to the Justices of this Court under date of April 22, 1950.