The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and the Kennedy Administration, 1960-1964: A History in Documents by James P. Marshall

Author:James P. Marshall [Marshall, James P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Civil Rights, Political Science
ISBN: 9780807168769
Google: yxFMDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 35863494
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2018-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

Document 14 is a letter by Attorney Arthur Freund to Anthony Lewis of the New York Times concerning a court decision which upheld powers of the federal government and which Freund believes has existed for many years.

14. Attorney Arthur Freund to Anthony Lewis on U.S. v. City of Jackson, September 10, 1963

Re: United States v. City of Jackson, Mississippi

(1963, CA5) 318 F.2 (Adv.Op., August 5, 1963)

1.c.14 et seg.

Dear Tony:

In the above-styled case, Judge Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit has written a very important opinion. The importance lies in the circumstance for the first time in 75 years, so far as I know, a federal appellate court has powerfully suggested that the United States has the inherent right to bring an action in its own name to protect the rights of an individual guaranteed under the Constitution or laws of the United States, where the violations of such rights affect the public at large.

This principle approved by Judge Wisdom is one I have espoused for more than fifteen years, attempting as I have to persuade Assistant Attorneys-General in the Department of Justice to use this power in important civil rights cases. Many eminent scholars do not believe that the federal government or the Attorney-General have this authority unless it is specifically granted by statute. A great fuss has been raised about Title III of the proposed Civil Rights Bill presently before Congress as it was when presented under the Eisenhower administration. The whole furor, then and now, was and is in my view a sham battle, for I believe that the power sought already exists and it has often led me to wonder if the Department of Justice really wanted the specific statutory authority it would have spelled out for it under Title III.

In re Debs (1895), 158 U.S. 564, 39 L. Ed. 1092, makes very interesting reading today on the subject, and I call to your special attention the summary of the brief of the Government in that case which, even at that early date, pressed the view that the United States had the power, independent of statute to sue for the protection of the public. . . .

The brilliant, far-reaching and challenging opinion of Judge Wisdom should receive the attention and comment of all who are interested in the progress of the law in the field of human relations and it should, therefore, attract your own special interest.

Source: Freund–A Lewis re US v City of Jackson in Wisdom Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, September 10, 1963, BMPP-006-005; see also Marshall, Student Activism, 216, where this same case is mentioned.

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