Owen v. Browder Petition for Rehearing

    IN THE

itpraite (Etmrt of iht Potted States
O CTOBER T E R M , 1956 

No. 343

C. C. (Jack) Owen, Jimmy Hitchcock, and Sibyl Pool, 
as members of the Alabama Public Service 

Commission,
Appellants,

YS.
Aurelia S. Browder, and Susie McDonald and 

Claudette Colvin, by Q. P. Colvin, next friend, and 
Mary Louise Smith, by Frank Smith, next friend, and 

others similarly situated,
Appellees

ON A P P E A L  FR O M  T H E  U N IT E D  STA TE S 
D IS T R IC T  COURT FO R  T H E  M ID D L E  

D IS T R IC T  OF A L A B A M A , 
N O R T H E R N  D IV ISIO N

P E T IT IO N  FO R  R E H E A R IN G

JO H N  P A T T E R SO N
Attorney General of Alabama 

W IL L IA M  N. M cQ U EEN  
Assistant Attorney General 

GO RD ON  M A D ISO N  
Assistant Attorney General 

W M . F. B L A C K
Counsel for Appellants

W A L K E R  PR IN TIN G  C O .



IN THE

wpxzmt (Emtri of 1 \\t Pmtefr
OCTOBER TE RM , 1956

No. 343

C. C. (Jack) Owen, Jimmy Hitchcock, and Sibyl Pool, 
as members of the Alabama Public Service 

Commission,
A ppellants,

VS.

Aurelia S. Browder, and Susie McDonald and 
Claudette Colvin, by Q. P. Colvin, next friend, and 

Mary Louise Smith, by Frank Smith, next friend, and 
others similarly situated,

Appellees

ON A P P E A L  FROM  T H E  U N IT E D  STA TE S 
D IS T R IC T  COURT FO R  T H E  M ID D L E  

D IS T R IC T  OF A L A B A M A , 
N O R T H E R N  D IV ISIO N

P E T IT IO N  FO R  R E H E A R IN G
N ow come the appellants in the above-styled cause 

and respectfully apply to this Court for a rehearing 
and reconsideration o f its decision o f November 13, 
1956, affirming the judgment of the three-judge Dis­
trict Court.



2

The appellants respectfully submit to the Court that 
laws permitting, and even requiring the separation of 
the races in places where they are liable to be brought 
into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of 
either race to the other, and such laws prior to the 
decision rendered in this cause have for years been gen­
erally, even universally, recognized as within the com­
petency of the State Legislatures in the exercise of 
their police power. This has been the expressed opinion 
of many distinguished and learned justices who have 
heretofore sat on the Supreme Court of the United 
States.

W e earnestly insist that the State’s police power 
has been wrongfully taken from it, and there now exists 
a “ No man’s land,” in which the State, under the Court’s 
opinion, is powerless to protect property and prevent 
breaches of the peace which will inevitably result from 
the Court’s decision rendered in this cause. The Tenth 
Amendment has been written out of the Constitution.

The principles of law stated in Plessy v. Ferguson, 
168 U. S. 537, should receive the sanction and approval 
of this Court as now constituted.

The appellants, therefore, respectfully request that 
this, their application for rehearing, be granted.

Respectfully submitted,

JO H N  P A T T E R SO N
Attorney General of Alabama 
Judicial Building 
Montgomery, Alabama



3

W IL L IA M  N. M cQ U E EN  
Assistant Attorney General 

of Alabama 
Judicial Building 
Montgomery, Alabama

GO RD ON  M A D ISO N  
Assistant Attorney General 

of Alabama 
Judicial Building 
Montgomery, Alabama

W M . F. B LA C K  
State Office Building 
Montgomery, Alabama

Counsel for Appellants, C. C. 
(JA C K ) OW EN , J I M M Y  
H ITCH C O C K , A N D  SIB Y L  
POOL, as Members of the 
Alabama Public Service Com­
mission.

I, Gordon Madison, one of the attorneys for ap­
pellants, C. C. (Jack) Owen, Jimmy Hitchcock and 
Sibyl Pool, as members of the Alabama Public Service 
Commission, and a member of the Bar of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, hereby certify that on the 
C&.tf... day of November, 1956, I served copies of the 
foregoing petition for rehearing on the several appellees 
thereto by placing copies in duly addressed envelopes, 
with first class postage prepaid, to their respective at­
torneys of record as follows:



4

TO : Charles D. Langford Attorney for Appellees 
113 Monroe Street 
Montgomery, Alabama

Fred D. Gray Attorney for Appellees
113 Monroe Sti’eet 
Montgomery, Alabama

Robert L. Carter Attorney for Appellees 
107 West 43rd Street 
New York 36, New York

Thurgood Marshall Attorney for Appellees 
107 West 43rd Street 
New York 36, New York

I further certify that this petition for rehearing is 
presented in good faith and not for delay.

KKy
GORDON M A D ISO N
Assistant Attorney General of Alabama 
State of Alabama 
Judicial Building 
Montgomery, Alabama