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LAWS OP THE! LAND NOT MADE BY SUPREME COURTWith President Eisenhower again callingfor all states to obey the mandates of the federal courts in regard to school segregation, it has become increasingly important that people fully understand what the law is thatthe states are supposed to carry out.To begin with, neither the U. S. Supreme Court nor any federal court can make any law. The courts can only interpret laws already on the books, and since a court decision, whether issued by the. Supreme Court or a lower court, pertains to only one particular case, no specific court decision can ever be rightly construed as the “law of the land.”The case of Brown vs. Board of Education, which culminated in the famous U. S. Supreme Court decision that segregation of the races in the public schools is unconstitutional-is a case point.There is no law on the books which says racial segregation in the public schools is unlawful, and one Southern gentleman has a standing offer to pay $10,000 to anyone who can read him the text of- law of the United States prohibiting the maintenance of racially separate public schools. Nobody has stepped forward to claim this money yet, and nobody will, for there is no such law and until Congress undertakes to pass such a law there will be none regardless of what the U, S. Supreme Court might Say-All the talk we have been hearing about the Supreme Court decision in the Brown vs. Board of Education case being the. “law of the land” is just so much bunk. As James J. Kilpatrick, noted editor of the Richmond (Va.) News Leader recently pointed out, the Supreme Court decision in this particular case is only the “law of the case” and nothing more, In other words the litigants who were a party to this case are morally and legally bound to abide by the Supreme Court decision, but nobody who was not a party to the case is in any way bound by law, or otherwise, to accept this decision or to govern their action by it...The only way to finally and completely settle tills issue is for Congress to step in and clarify this situation, it has the power to draft a constitutional amendment which caniread “No state shall deny any person admis-btnerpublstitutions oh acount of race or color.”slon to its public schools or other public in-lf two-thirds of each House of Congress -I wd to such a constitutional amendment, Had Ifi Jfotm approved %. then thatft* put of the Constitutiona-
Newspaper Details
Guthrian
Guthrie Center, Iowa, US
Tue, Sep 09, 1958
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Grace T.
NY, USA 06 Mar 2021
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