Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States
Lee v. Washington
19 L. Ed. 2d 1212
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Date
- 1968-03-11
- Topic
- general
affirming determination that Alabama statutes requiring racial segregation in prisons violate Fourteenth Amendment | plaintiff class of prisoners against defendant class of wardens and jailers charged with enforcing statutes relating to segregation of prisoners | plaintiffs sought desegregation of State penal system and county and city jails; class composed of all wardens, jailers and sheriffs in Alabama | class of sheriffs and wardens proper in suit attacking statute calling for segregation of prisoners | statutes requiring racial segregation in prisons and jails violate Fourteenth Amendment | statutes requiring racial segregation in prisons and jails violate Fourteenth Amendment | prisoners are protected under the Equal 17 Protection Clause from invidious discrimination based on race | county sheriff and city warden properly sued as representatives of their counterparts in class action to enjoin racial segregation in state penal system and in county, city, and town jails | segregation of prisoners on the basis of race violates the Equal Protection Clause | Alabama statute requiring segregation of races in prisons and jails violation of Fourteenth Amendment | segregation of prisoners on the basis of race violates the Equal Protection Clause | statute requiring racial segregation in prisons violated the Fourteenth Amendment | racial discrimination in prisons offends equal protection clause of Fourteenth Amendment | state-wide defendant class of county sheriffs and city wardens | concurring opinion of Black, Harlan and Stewart, JJ. | Black, Harlan, and STEWART, JJ., concurring | Black, Harlan, and Stewart, JJ., concurring | Black, Harlan, and Stewart, JJ., concurring | Black, Harlan, and STEWART, JJ., concurring | Equal Protection Clause protects prisoners against racial discrimination | Black, Harlan, and Stewart, JJ., concurring | Black, Harlan, and Stewart, JJ., concurring | Black, Harlan, and Stewart, JJ., concurring | Black, Harlan and Stewart, JJ. concurring | former prisoners challenging segregated prison facilities | Board of Pensions and Security | Black, Harlan and Stewart, JJ, concurring | forbidding state-mandated racial segregation in prisons
Citator
- Cited by
- 173 opinions
LEE, COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTIONS OF ALABAMA, ET AL.
v.
WASHINGTON ET AL.
No. 75.
Supreme Court of United States.
Argued November 7, 1967. Decided March 11, 1968. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF ALABAMA.Nicholas S. Hare, Special Assistant Attorney General of Alabama, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were MacDonald Gallion, Attorney General, Gordon Madison, Assistant Attorney General, and J. M. Breckenridge.
Charles Morgan, Jr., argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were Orzell Billingsley, Jr., and Melvin L. Wulf.
PER CURIAM.
This appeal challenges a decree of a three-judge District Court declaring that certain Alabama statutes violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the extent that they require segregation of the races in prisons and jails, and establishing a schedule for desegregation of these institutions. The State's contentions that Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which relates to class actions, was violated in this case and that the challenged statutes are not unconstitutional are without merit. The remaining contention of the State is that the specific orders directing desegregation of prisons and *334 jails make no allowance for the necessities of prison security and discipline, but we do not so read the "Order, Judgment and Decree" of the District Court, which when read as a whole we find unexceptionable.
The judgment is affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK, MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, and MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring.
In joining the opinion of the Court, we wish to make explicit something that is left to be gathered only by implication from the Court's opinion. This is that prison authorities have the right, acting in good faith and in particularized circumstances, to take into account racial tensions in maintaining security, discipline, and good order in prisons and jails. We are unwilling to assume that state or local prison authorities might mistakenly regard such an explicit pronouncement as evincing any dilution of this Court's firm commitment to the Fourteenth Amendment's prohibition of racial discrimination.