Court Opinion

ID: 8884373
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 21:28:24.40084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:06:50.246651
License: Public Domain

GANEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I would reach decision here preliminarily, before proceeding to the merits of the case, as my colleagues in the majority have done.
At the time the lower court was considering the complaint before it which alleged claims under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, it is uncertain whether counsel for the plaintiff was permitted to orally amend the amended complaint to add a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment, as he contended at the hearing, for the record does not disclose any such procedure. However, it is certain from the lower court’s opinion that it deemed the complaint averred, in addition to a specific violation of the Supremacy Clause, Article VI of the Constitution, a violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, for *121it was on the latter ground that it based its decision specifically stating that it was not passing on the question of a violation of the Supremacy Clause, and revoked the order of the Secretary of Revenue withdrawing the plaintiff’s driver’s license and owner’s certificate. See rule 15(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
At this juncture of the case the lower court had neither power nor authority, alone, to pick and choose the grounds for its decision. It was mandated, when the alleged Supremacy Clause of the Constitution violation was asserted, and linked with a Fourteenth Amendment violation, to apply to the Chief Judge of this Circuit for the appointment of a three-judge court under 28 U.S.C. § 2281. Swift & Co. v. Wickham, 382 U.S. 111, 125, 86 S.Ct. 258, 15 L.Ed.2d 194 (1965). Here, the Court held that unless the “sole” ground alleged in the complaint was a violation of the Supremacy Clause, Article VI of the Constitution, it must be adjudicated by a three-judge court. (Emphasis ours.)
This holding is further buttressed by the later decision of the Supreme Court in Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Co., 382 U.S. 423, 428, 86 S.Ct. 594, 596, 15 L.Ed.2d 501 (1966), wherein the Court upheld the authority of Swift & Co., supra, and stated, “ * * * that an allegation that a state statute is preempted by a federal statute does not allege the unconstitutionality of the state statute so as to call for the convening of a three-judge court under 28 U.S.C. § 2281. Thus, under Swift, the pre-emption issue in this case standing alone would not have justified a three-judge court, and hence would not have justified direct appeal to us under 28 U.S.C. § 1253. The complaint here, however, also challenged the Arkansas statutes as being in violation of the Commerce, Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. In briefs submitted to us after oral argument the appellants have argued that all these constitutional challenges are so insubstantial as a matter of law that they are insufficient to make this an appropriate case for a three-judge court. We cannot accept that argument. Whatever the ultimate holdings on the questions may be we cannot dismiss them as insubstantial on their face. Nor does the fact that the pre-emption issue alone was passed on by the District Court keep this from being a three-judge ease.” (Emphasis ours.)
Accordingly, I hold that the district court, as I have indicated, had neither power, nor authority, to make disposition of the issues presented before it, to wit, a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, Article VI, when linked with claims under the Due Process and Equal Protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, and in so doing was clearly in error.
I would vacate the judgment of the lower court and remand the case to it with direction that application be made for the appointment of a three-judge court to the Chief Judge of this Circuit, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2281.