Ex Parte Gene Mitchell Gray Reply to Motion for Leave to File; Petition for a Writ of Mandamus; Brief in Support

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! OCT 11 I j

S U P R E M E  C OU RT  OF T H E  U N I T E D  S T A T E S

OCTOBER TERM, 1951

No. 159, Miscellaneous

EX PARTE GENE MITCHELL GRAY, LINCOLN 
ANDERSON BLAKENEY, JOSEPH HUTCH PAT­
TERSON AND JACK ALEXANDER

REPLY TO THE MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE PETI­
TION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS, PETITION FOR 
A WRIT OF MANDAMUS, AND BRIEF IN SUPPORT 
OF MOTION AND PETITION FOR MANDAMUS.

J ohn J. H ooker,
K. H arlan Dodson, J r.,

Counsel for Respondents.
W alker & H ooker, 

Of Counsel.



S U P R E M E  E U U R T  OF T H E  U N I T E D  S T A T E S
OCTOBER TERM, 1951

No. 159, Miscellaneous

EX PARTE GENE MITCHELL GRAY, LINCOLN 
ANDERSON BLAKENEY, JOSEPH HUTCH PAT­
TERSON and JACK ALEXANDER

REPLY TO THE MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE PETI­
TION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS, PETITION FOR 
A WRIT OF MANDAMUS, AND BRIEF IN SUPPORT 
OF MOTION AND PETITION FOR MANDAMUS.

The respondents, The Board of Trustees of The Univer­
sity of Tennessee, etc., et al., state the following matters 
and grounds in reply to petitioners’ motion herein for leave 
to file a petition for writ of mandamus:

I

Petitioners seek a writ of mandamus from this Honorable 
Court directed to the Honorable the United States District 
Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Northern 
Division, the Honorable Shackelford Miller, Jr., Circuit 
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth 
Circuit, the Honorable Leslie R. Darr and the Honorable 
Robert L. Taylor, Judges of the United States District 
Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee to show cause



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on a day to be fixed by this Court why mandamus should not 
issue from this Court directing said Honorable Shackelford 
Miller, Jr., Circuit Judge of the United States Court of 
Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the Honorable Leslie R. 
Harr and the Honorable Robert L. Taylor, Judges of the 
United States District Court to vacate and expunge from 
the record and the order of April 13, 1951 dissolving the 
three-judge court and the subsequent action of Honorable 
Robert L. Taylor in which he proceeded to pass upon the 
issues involved in this case.

As was pointed out in the opinion filed as Appendix A to 
petitioners’ motion, petition and brief and as was held in 
the cases of Ex Parte Bransford, 310 U. S. 354; Ex Parte 
Collins, 277 U. S. 565; Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 331 
U. S. 549, 568-574, the case of Gene Mitchell Gray, et al. v. 
The Board of Trustees, etc., from which petitioners have 
sought to appeal directly to this Honorable Court, was not 
a proper case for the consideration of a three-judge court.

II
The opinion of the District Court of three Judges for the 

Eastern District of Tennessee, filed on April 13, 1951 (At­
tached as Appendix A to petitioners’ motion, petition and 
brief), in this cause and the order entered pursuant thereto 
shows that the question involved in that case was the alleged 
unjust discrimination against the plaintiffs under the Equal 
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States, and not the constitution­
ality of certain statutes of the State of Tennessee, or the 
order of the Board of Trustees of The University of Ten­
nessee, referred to in the pleadings, and, accordingly, no 
question was properly presented for determination by a 
three-judge court.



3

The record in the case of Gene Mitchell Gray, et al., v. 
The Board of Trustees, etc., referred to in petitioners’ 
motion, petition and brief further discloses that the defend­
ants prayed no appeal from the opinion and judgment of 
the District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, 
Northern Division, filed on April 20,1951 (97 F. Supp. 463), 
and, consequently, petitioners’ application for a mandamus 
herein is now moot, the said opinion and judgment of April 
20, 1951, having become final.

W herefore, the respondents respectfully submit that 
petitioners’ motion herein should be denied and no writ 
of mandamus issued.

Dated: October 8, 1951.
Respectfully submitted,

K. H arlan Dodson, J r.,
J ohn J. H ooker,

ByK. H arlan Dodson, J r., 
Attorneys for Respondents.

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