Court Opinion

ID: 9458992
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:07:42.808076+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:58.627833
License: Public Domain

BELL, Circuit Judge,
with whom GEWIN, Circuit Judge, joins, specially concurring:
I agree that these criminal cases could not be removed under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1443 (1), as construed in Greenwood v. Peacock, 1966, 384 U.S. 808, 86 S.Ct. 1800, 16 L.Ed.2d 944.
The removal statute is applicable to remove civil or criminal prosecutions from a state court where a person “ . . .is denied or cannot enforce in the courts of such State a right under any law providing for the equal civil rights of citizens of the United States, . . . ”. The key, as stated by the Supreme Court in Greenwood v. Peacock, is whether the law under which the right arises which is being denied or which cannot be enforced is one which provides for equal civil rights. The court stated, as an example, that the broad constitutional guaranties of the First Amendment are not embraced in the phrase “equal civil rights”, nor were rights provided under Title 42, §§ 1971 or 1981. 384 U.S. at 825, 86 S.Ct. 1800. See also Georgia v. Rachel, 1966, 384 U.S. 780, 86 S.Ct. 1783, 16 L.Ed.2d 925, where the court concluded that the phrase “equal civil rights” meant any law providing for specific civil rights stated in terms of racial equality, and excluded First Amendment and due process claims from the definition. 384 U.S. at 792, 86 S.Ct. 1783.
The subsequently enacted criminal statute here in question, 82 Stat. 73, codified as 18 U.S.C.A. § 245, is not a law providing for equal civil rights within the confines of § 1443(1) and Greenwood v. Peacock. Indeed, the statute makes this clear by its express terms. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 245(a).
It should be noted, however, that the Supreme Court was at pains in Greenwood v. Peacock to catalogue the other remedies available in the federal courts to redress wrongs which may be claimed by petitioners to have been suffered at the hands of state officials. This appeal is concerned only with the propriety of removal.