Appellants Response in the Moore Case to Suggestion on Court's Jurisdiction of the Appeal
Public Court Documents
October 5, 1970
15 pages
Cite this item
-
Case Files, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hardbacks. Appellants Response in the Moore Case to Suggestion on Court's Jurisdiction of the Appeal, 1970. ad7a8f16-2e34-f111-88b4-0022482cdbbc. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/583079e4-1da5-45f2-b3df-7a8007d75477/appellants-response-in-the-moore-case-to-suggestion-on-courts-jurisdiction-of-the-appeal. Accessed June 02, 2026.
Copied!
[||843a83ca-c23a-4a73-a16d-fe4c106d59d6||] IN THE
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
OCTOBER TERM, 1970
Nos. 444, 498, 281 and 349
MRS. ROBERT LEE MOORE, ET AL,
Appellants
VS.
CHARLOTTE -MECKLENBURG BOARD
OF EDUCATION, ET AL,
NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF
EDUCATION, ET AL, Appellants
VS. JAMES E. SWANN, ET AL,
JAMES E. SWANN, ET AL, Petitioners
VS. CHARLOTTE -MECKLENBURG BOARD |
OF EDUCATION, ET AL, |
CHARI.OTTE-MECKLENBURG BOARD OF
DUCA LION, 8% AL, Petitioners
VS.
JAMES E£. SWANN, ET AL
RESPONSE BY APPELLANTS IN THE MORE CAR
TO THE SUGGESTION OF THE SWANN PLAINTIFF: >
THAT THE COURT DOES NOT HAVEL JURISDICTION
Or THZ APPEAL IN THE MOORE CASE
To the Honorable, the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the
Supreme Court of the United States:
The "'suggestion'' now filed in the Moore case by the Swann plaintiffs
makes three principal assertions: - That the Moore case 'is not a truly
adversary proceeding''; that there was nothing in the Moore case that required
hearing by a three-judge court; and that the Moore case raises ''no
substantial questions'' but is an improper "collateral attack'' upon ''the
judgments'' of the Swann age,
Before replying to these claims, the appellants would respectfully
call to the Court's attention the following circumstances. This Moore case
and the Swann cases were ''consolidated for hearing' and were heard
together by the three-judge court Belov. The pleadings and the evidentiary
showings in the Moore case were then the same as they are now. The
positions taken, and the contentions made, by the Moore plaintiffs were the
same then as now. Yet the Swann plaintiffs did not then or thereafter, until
this late moment, make any such ''suggestion'' as they now bring forward.
The Notice of Appeal to this Court, by the Moore plaintiffs, was
entered on June 23, 1970, the day after the three-judge court rendered its
"Final Judgment'. More than a month ago, this Court ordered that this case
be set for argument, along with other ''public school" cases, on October 12,
1970. As recently as September 11, 1970, counsel for the Swann plaintiffs
were writing to the Clerk of this Court relative to the arrangement and
scheduling of this case for argument together with the other Charlotte-
iiecklenburg school cases.
"Suggestion' and Memorandum of Swann plaintiffs, pp. 2, 19.
Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education and Moore
vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 312 F. Supp. 503, 505 (1970).
Appendix in Moore case, p. 48.
i
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
e
e
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
After all this, the Swann plaintiffs, now and for the first time,
tender a "suggestion" that the Court has no jurisdiction over the Moore case
and that therefore these appellants should not be heard at all.
Turning, however, to the grounds on which the Swann plaintiffs
bring forward their belated "suggestion", the appellants believe that a
logical and natural Séquence of reply would be the reverse of the order in
which the Swann plaintiffs have stated their assertions.
lL
The Suggestion Of The Swann Plaintiffs That The Moore Case Raises "Nc
Substantial Questions"
As to the proposition that the Moore case raises "no substantial
questions' and is merely an improper "collateral attack" on what has been
ruled in the Swann case, the basic answer is that, on the contrary, the
Moore case thrusts to the very heart of this whole controversy. Indeed, it
raises substantial questions that are not contested in the Swann case at all.
Racial compulsions ordered by the United States District Court,
defendant in the Moore case, and such compulsions are not opposed by any
party in all the Charlotte -Mecklenburg litigation, except by the Moore
plaintiffs only. Such, for example, is the drastic gerrymandering of school
attendance zones, which is admitted on all sides, and declared by the United
States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, to have been done on a
1 racial basis and solely for racial purposes . The Moore plaintiffs, and
oniy the Moore plaintiffs, oppose this and place it in issue and in contest.
Appendix in Swann case, p. 1265a.
Appendix in Moore case, pp. 40, 41, 42.
Moreover, and of completely fundamental importance, not only
do the Moore plaintiffs contest each and all of the racial compulsions imposed,
from whatever source, in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg situation, but they do
so in a sense and with a power that is unique in all the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
litigation - for the Moore plaintiffs are the only parties anywhere in these
cases who are pleading that constitutional rights guaranteed to them as
individuals and citizens are being violated and trampled upon in each and all
of these rid
To say that the Moore plaintiffs raise ''no substantial questions
is to say that when the Chief Justice, concurring in Northcross vs. Board of
2
Education, recently pointed to certain '"problems'' as being "basic' , he was
in truth referring to "no substantial questions''. For the very questions there
expressed, such as whether, as a constitutional matter, any particular
racial balance must be achieved in the schools" and "to what extent school
districts and zones may or must be altered as a constitutional matter', etc.,
were and are the heart of the Moore suit.
"The rights created by the first section of the
Fourteenth Amendment are, by its terms, guaranteed
to the individual. The rights established are personal
rights". :
Shelley vs. Kraemer, 334 US 1,
22, 68S Ct 836, 92 1.FEd 1181, 1185
"[T The values of the First Amendment, as embodied
in the Fourteenth, look primarily towards the preservation
of personal liberty, rather than towards the fulfillment
of collective goals''.
Braunfeld vs. Brown, 366 US 599,
610, 81 S Ct 1144, 6 LEd2d 563, 570
Mr. Justice Brennan (concurring and
dissenting)
Northcross vs. Board of Education, US , 8908S Ct ’
25 LL Ed 2d 246, 251.
Nor did the Moore plaintiffs place these questions in issue as an
expedient response to the observations in Northcross. This suit was
instituted prior to the decision in Northcross.
Still further, as to one of the '"basic'' questions referred to in
Northcross, namely,. "to what extent school districts and zones may or must
be altered as a constitutional matter', it is to be remembered, as stressed
above, that this question is nowhere at issue in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
litigation except in the Moore case.
The Swann plaintiffs seek to condemn the Moore plaintiffs for
""collaterally' attacking the rulings in Swann. Surely, however, it is
elementary that the prohibitions against collateral attack apply only to those
who were parties, or privies, to the proceeding in which judgment was
rendered.
Is it not also equally elementary that he who comes into Court
pleading an invasion of his constitutional rights, is not to be dismissed, and
denied hearing on appeal, simply upon the ground that in another case, lower
court rulings - not those of a court of last resort - were adverse to his
contentions.
And once again, it must be emphasized that Moore is no
relitigation of Swann, because (1) in Swann there was nobody to plead, and
| nobody did plead, that constitutional rights belonging to him were being
violated by the compulsions there imposed, and (2) Moore places in issue
matters which were, and still are, uncontested in Swann.
The Swann plaintiffs find fault with the Moore plaintiffs for not
attempting ''to intervene in the Swann case in the District Court or to file
an amicus curiae brief' in that case. They overlook the important fact that
when the Moore plaintiffs first went into Court, the compulsions of which
they are complaining had already been ordered. These compulsions were
imposed by the District Court's orders of February 5, 1970. The Moore
case was instituted on February 22, 1970.
Up to that time, the Moore plaintiffs, if they were advertent to the
matter at all, might very well have remembered that in the Swann case and
in the same District Court, and also in the United States Court of Appeals,
it had been determined that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg public school system
was being operated as it should be and without racial compuidions
In such circumstances, upon any question as to intervention, it
would seem much more reasonable and appropriate to ask why did not the
Swann plaintiffs intervene in the Moore case? Orders had already been
entered in the Swann case, but the Moore case was just beginning.
The Moore plaintiffs instituted their action in the State Court. It
is altogether understandable that they should have done so, rather than in
the United States District Court which had just ordered the compulsions
which they urgently desired to oppose . For, of course, a claim of right
under the United States Constitution can be as truly raised in a State Court
as in Federal Court.
1
Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 243 F. .
Supp. 667 (1965) and Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education,
369 F'. 2d 29 (4th Cir., 1966).
2 The Swann plaintiffs even cavil that the Moore plaintiffs should
have included them as defendants in the Moore case. It is submitted that in
acting to protect their constitutional rights, it was in no way necessary, nor
indeed proper, that the Moore plaintiffs should have sued other individuals
and non-official citizens simply because they were plaintiffs in Swann.
In making this point, the Swann plaintiffs twice take pains to refer
to themselves as ''Negro plaintiffs’ whom the Moore plaintiffs did not see fit
| to name as defendants in Moore. If their being "Negro plaintiffs’ has either
significance or relevance - and the appellants cannot see that it does - it
might be noted that in Moore, there are various Negro plaintiffs,
including, for example, Mrs. Robert L.ee Moore, whose name the caption
of the case bears.
In the State Court, the Moore plaintiffs obtained an injunction
proidoitng them against the compulsions which the defendant Board of
Education was about to fasten upon them. They well knew, however, and
acknowledged, as they have at all times since, that they must stand or fall
on their claim of right under the United States Constitution.
Because of that claim, the case was removed into the same United
States District Court where the Swann orders had been issued. There the
Swann plaintiffs promptly asked, in the Swann case, that the State Court
injunction, which had been issued to the Moore plaintiffs, be nullified’, and
the District Court promptly so ordered in Swann and in Motte. Thereafter,
the Swann plaintiffs apparently directed no further attention to the Moore
case, until the consolidated hearing of Swann and Moore before the three-
judge court.
II.
The Suggestion Of The Swann Plaintiffs
That There Was Nothing In The Moore
Case That Required Hearing By A
Three-Judge Court
Although, as emphasized above, the very foundation of the Moore
case is the plaintiffs’ plea of violation of rights guaranteed to them by the
United States Constitution, the Swann plaintiffs "suggest" to the Court that they
now ''have some serious doubts'' as to whether there is anything asserted in the
Move Complaint which would constitute any basis for federal jurisdiction.
They say that the requirements of 28 USC §1331 are not met in
that "there is no allegation that the matter in controversy exceeds the sum
or value of $10,000'. It seems a paradox to eh that a plea for
constitutional protection against governmental action based on race is not
Appendix in Swann case, p. 91lla.
" Appendix in Moore case, p. 32.
Appendix in Swann case, p. 925a.
cognizable in the Courts of the United States unless a dollar value is assigned
to the constitutional right.
If, however, the Swann plaintiffs do so insist - albeit with "doubts |-
it will be found that the Complaint does contain allegations, which the Swann
plaintiffs apparently overlook, that the asserted unconstitutional compulsions
will "wrongfully and unlawfully deprive the taxpayers of Charlotte and
Mecklenburg County', whom the plaintiffs represent, "of their property in
the amount of’ $3, 000, 000 to $4, 000, 000 "during the current year TEL
Moreover, the Complaint establishes Federal jurisdiction under
28 USC §1343 (3) in that it seeks, to redress the deprivation of rights
"secured by" provisions of "the Constitution of the United States'' relating
to the "equal rights of citizens" - such deprivation of rights being
accomplished by the defendant Board of Education "under color' of "state
law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage'', in that the Board is
a creature of the state, and its every act, indeed its very functioning as a
Board, stems from the state. It will be further remembered that a
substantial part of the compulsion of which the Moore plaintiffs complain was
proposed and "programmed" by the Board itself.
Finally, it is clear, and the Swann plaintiffs after some musings
seem to acknowledge”, that Federal jurisdiction exists in the Moore case
under 28 USC §1443, since the Moore plaintiffs seek protection against
"act[s]" and compulsions imposed ‘under color of authority'' claimed to be
"derived from'' the provisions of the United States Constitution relating to
"equal rights''.
Appendix in Moore case, p. 16.
2 ""Suggestion' and Memorandum of Swann plaintiffs, p. 12.
| Of equal fallibility is the "suggestion" of the Swann plaintiffs that
there was nothing in the Moore case that required hearing by a three-judge
court.
It is to be noted, in the first place, that the United States District
Court considered that the case required hearing by a three-judge conte, So
did the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth
Circuit’. So did the three-judge court ot And so, apparently, did the
Swann plaintiffs themselves. For, as has been hereinabove pointed out, they
participated in the consolidated hearing of Swann and Moore, without any
shadow of the ''suggestion'' they now make that Moore should not have been
there at all.
The Swann plaintiffs' present point seems to be that the Moore
Complaint did not ask for an adjudication of unconstitutionality as to any
statute, State or Federal. That is true. But in order for a three-judge
court to come into a case, it is, of course, not by any means necessary that
the Complaint itself shall raise issue as to the constitutionality of a
statute. Such issue may, and often does, arise later in the development
of the case - and, to be sure, is often raised by parties other than the
plaintiff. 28 USC §2281 does not require anything as to the objective of the
suit or the content of the Complaint. It provides that ''an interlocutory or
permanent injunction restraining the enforcement, operation or execution
of any State statute . . . shall not be granted by any district court or judge
thereof upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of such statute unless the
1 Appendix in Moore case, pp. 32-33, 38.
2 Appendix in Moore case, p. 39.
Appendix in Moore case, p. 46.
School Board to assign children to public schools upon such considerations as
application therefor is heard and determined by a district court of three
"n
judges . . .
Here the defendants, being in a "'dilemma'' under conflicting orders
from the two courts, filed, after the Moore case had been removed to the
United States District Court, an application for an injunctive order",
"restraining the enforcement, operation and execution" of the North Carolina
statute involved ''and any action' by state officers "in the enforcing or
executing or carrying out' of such statute, ''the ground of such injunctive
1
order being the unconstitutionality'' of the statute . The Swann plaintiffs had
2
earlier made a similar application in the Swann case .
At the consolidated hearing before the three-judge Coui the Moor
plaintiffs, as is authorized by the decisions of this Court, fully presented the
contentions upon the merits of the case, which they have set forth in their
brief to this Court, and now further desire to present in oral argument.
"As the validity of provisions of the state constitution
and statutes . . . was challenged, the application for
Appendix in Moore case, p. 27.
The Moore plaintiffs - though of course supporting the central
provisions of the statute, which forbid the exclusion of children from public
schools, and the assignment of children to public schools, on the basis of
race - themselves also filed an application for an order adjudging a proviso of
the statute to be unconstitutional and enjoining the enforcement of that proviso,
The ground of this application was that the proviso was inconsistent with the
central provisions of the statute, in that if could be deemed to authorize a
the Board in its ''sole discretion'' might see fit, and that this could include
the improper and unconstitutional consideration of race. In its decision,
however, the three-judge court did not specifically address itself to this
question.
Appendix in Swann case, pp. 465a, 475a.
3 As has been hereinabove noted, the three-judge court, in its
"Final Judgment'', order that ''all parties are hereby enjoined from enforcing,
or seeking the enforcement of" the provisions of the statute which the Court
held to be unconstitutional (Appendix in Moore case, p. 65). The Swann
plaintiffs pick at the point that in Moore, the School Board, though "a public
(continued on page 11).
10.
T
o
injunction was properly heard by three judges. Stratton
vs, St. Louis 3S, W.BR. Co., 282US 10, - 715.1. Bd 135,
91 S Ct 8. The jurisdiction of the district court so
consti, and of this court upon appeal, extends to
every question involved, whether of state or federal law,
and enables the court to rest its judgment on the decision
of such of the questions as in its opinion effectively dispose
of the case'. (And cases cited).
Sterling vs. Constantin, 287 US 378,
393-394, 53S Ct 190, 77 LL Ed 375, 383
III.
The Suggestion Of The Swann Plaintiffs
That The Moore Case Is Not A Truly
Adversary Proceeding
The first and basic answer to this assertion is the undeniable fact,
already pointed out, that the Moore defendants proposed, and have defended, |
and are still defending, racial compulsions which the Moore plaintiffs
unalterably oppose, and which the Moore plaintiffs have attacked from the
beginning of this case, and at all stages, and are still attacking in this Court.
Nor is it to be overlooked thai the Moore plaintiffs are the only
parties in all the Charlotte-Mecklenburg litigation who have done so and are
doing so. And if their voice is stilled, as the Swann plaintiffs are now seeking
to accomplish by ''suggestion'’, then these compulsions will go uncontested
in this Court.
4 (continued from page 10).
agency of the State of North Carolina'', and its members and the Superintenden
of the school system, do not come within the terms of 28 USC §2281, "any
officer'' of the state or "administrative board or commission’, for that the
Board did not ask for ''an injunction against itself" (''Suggestion'' and
Memorandum of Swann plaintiffs, p. 15). It is difficult to follow the logic of
this, but in any event it is indisputable that the Board wound up being enjoined,
along with all other parties in both cases, including the Governor of the State,
the State Controller of the Department of Public Instruction and a State Court
Judge, And there can certainly be no doubt but that the decree of the three-
judge court effectively restrained and stopped any enforcement, and any
effort in any quarter to enforce, the statutory provisions which the Court
ruled unconstitutional.’
x
]
But, say the Swann plaintiffs, the Moore defendants "are
cooperating' with the Moore plaintiffs. In support of this pronouncement,
the Swann plaintiffs declare that (1) the Answer in Moore admits "every
allegation of the Complaint', and (2) the defendants ''responded to the
Moore plaintiffs' Request for Admissions by admitting every fact asserted"
and ''on the same og
A reading of the Answer in the Moore case will show that the Swann
plaintiffs have somewhat overstated themselves in their unqualified
announcement that it admits "every allegation of the Cowptaini'e. Moreover,
the Moore defendants have only admitted what they could not truthfully deny.
The bulk of the Complaint consists of allegations as to the express findings
and orders of the District Court, regarding the Charlotte-Mecklenburg public
school system. There is no basis on which the Moore defendants could deny
these allegations. Nor could the Swann plaintiffs.
Similarly, as to the Moore plaintiffs' Request for Admissions, in
the manner provided by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the
responses of the School Board thereto, these related entirely to certain
exhibits which were attached to the Request for Atnitesions With one
possible exception, these were prepared by the School Board itself. The
Board could hardly deny its own handiwork.
As to the deliberate and purposeful racial motivation in the
gerrymandering of the school attendance zones, and in the long-distance
assignments even beyond those zones, there is no denial of this from any
"Suggestion'' and Memorandum of Swann plaintiffs, pp. 7, 10.
2
Appendix in Moore case, pp. 34-37.
: Supplement to Appendix in Moore case.
12.
direction. It is expressed in the orders of the District Court and in the
opinions of the three-judge court and of the Court of Aopesils’. Would the
Swann plaintiffs, nevertheless, have the Board of Education to deny it?
As to the Board's giving its Answer to the Request for Admissions
without any delay at all, it was obvious that the three-judge court would
want evidentiary showings to be complete and ready when it convened - which
was only two days from the time when the Moore plaintiffs obtained the
exhibits in question and called on the Board of Education for admissions
relating to them. The Court, in fact, examined these exhibits and formally
2
received them in evidence .
CONCLUSION
As has been seen, the Swann plaintiffs consider that there should
be stronger confrontation of the case asserted by the Moore plaintiffs. Yet,
instead of furnishing such confrontation they seek to avoid it and prevent it
by suggestion’ that the Moore plaintiffs be not heard but dismissed.
The Moore plaintiffs, on the other hand, seek to place their
constitutional position in challenge and in opposition to any and all parties who
uphold any of the racial compulsions imposed below. They do not seek to
avoid, but welcome, any consolidating action which the Court may deem
appropriate to that end.
Appendix in Swann case, pp. 882a, 823a, 1265a. Appendix in
Moore case, pp. 40, 41, 42. Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education and Moore vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 312 F.
Supp. 503, 509-510 (1970).
In similar vein, the Swann plaintiffs purport to see something
highly suspicious in the fact that the ex parte preliminary restraining order .
in the Moore case was signed by the State Court Judge on a Sunday night
("Suggestion and Memorandum of Swann plaintiffs, pp. 3, 5, 19). They should
know that such preliminary injunctive orders are almost characteristically
obtained in situations of immediacy and urgency. The Moore plaintiffs alleged
that grievous compulsions were in the process of being implemented and were
about to be imposed upon them to their "irreparable injury' (Appendix in
Moore case, p. 17)... The preliminary order notified the defendants of an
early date on which they would be fully heard as to whether the orders should
or should not be continued in effect.
It is respectfully submitted that it would indeed be ironic to
exclude from this contest the only parties who assert their individual
constitutional rights against the racial compulsions which have been decreed
in the courts below - and the only parties who oppose each and all of those
‘compulsions. It would be tragically wrong if hearing were now denied to
the very persons who raise and plead the constitutional rights which are
here hanging in the balance, and which will undoubtedly be here effectively
vindicated or conclusively foreclosed.
Respectfully submitted,
Whiteford S. Blakeney | ji
North Carolina National Bank Building Is
Charlotte, North Carolina
Attorney for the Appellants
Of Counsel:
William H. Booe
Law Building
Charlotte, North Carolina
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I, the undersigned attorney for the appellants in the case of
Mrs. Robert Lee Moore, et al vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of
Education, et al, do hereby certify that copies of the appellants' "Response
By Appellants In The Moore Case To The Suggestion Of The Swann Plaintiffs
That The Court Does Not Have Jurisdiction Of The Appeal In The Moore
Case' have this day been served, by the depositing of such copies in the
United States Post Office in Charlotte, North Carolina, with postage prepaid,
upon each of the following, who are counsel for the appellees, at the
following addresses, namely: - William J. Waggoner, Esq., Attorney at Law,
Barringer Office Tower, Charlotte, North Carolina 28202, and Benjamin S.
Horack, Esq., Attorney at Law, 806 East Trade Street, Charlotte, North
Carolina 28202.
I do further certify that copies of the aforesaid document have this
day also been served in the same manner, upon each of the additional named
attorneys, who appear as counsel in the related cases of Swann vs. Charlotte+
Mecklenburg Board of Education, at the following addresses, namely: -
James M. Nabritt, III, Esq., Attorney at Law, 10 Columbus Circle, New
York, New York 10019, Julius L. Chambers, Esq., Attorney at Law,
416 West 10th Street, Charlotte, North Carolina, Robert B. Morgan, Esq. i
Attorney General of the State of North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina,
Ralph Moody, Esq., Deputy Attorney General of the State of North Carolina,
Raleigh, North Carolina, and Andrew A. Vanore, Jr.,Esq., Assistant
Attorney General of the State of North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina.
This 5th day of October, 1970.
~ Whiteford S, Blakeney aa
Attorney for the Appellants [||843a83ca-c23a-4a73-a16d-fe4c106d59d6||]