NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, INC.,
v.
BENNETT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ARKANSAS, ET AL.

U.S. | 1959-06-22
No. 757
with whom The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Brennan concur, dissenting.
360 U.S. 471 Supreme Court of the United States (1959) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 3 L. Ed. 2d 1375 · 79 S. Ct. 1192 · 1959 U.S. LEXIS 756 · SCDB 1958-126
Cited by 34 cases
Per_curiam
Per Curiam.

Per Curiam.

When the validity of a state statute, challenged under the United States Constitution, is properly for adjudication before a United States District Court, reference to the state courts for construction of the statute should not automatically be made. The judgment is vacated and the case is remanded to the United States District Court for the ^Eastern District of Arkansas for consideration in light of Harrison v. N. A. A. C. P., ante, p. 167.

Dissent
Mr. Justice Douglas,

Mr. Justice Douglas,

with whom The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Brennan concur, dissenting.

While I agree that the case should be remanded to the District Court, I think that court should be directed to pass on the constitutional issues presented without prior reference to the state courts. My reasons are stated in my dissent in Harrison v. N. A. A. C. P., ante, p. 179.

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  • Zwickler v. Koota, 389 U.S. 241 (U.S. 1967)
    …60 IT. S. 167. The decision in Harrison, however, is not a broad encyclical commanding automatic remission to the state [*251] courts of all federal constitutional questions arising in the application of state statutes. N. A. A. C. P. v. Bennett, 360 U. S. 471. Though never interpreted by a state court, if a state statute is not fairly subject to an interpretation which will avoid or modify the federal constitutional question, it is the duty of a federal court to decide the federal question when presented…
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  • Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U.S. 360 (U.S. 1964)
    …ty powers. Ascertainment of whether there exist the “special circumstances,” Propper v. Clark, 337 U. S. 472, prerequisite to its application must be made on a case-by-case basis. Railroad Comm’n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496, 500; NAACP v. Bennett, 360 U. S. 471.11 Those special circumstances are not present here. We doubt, in the first place, that a construction of the oath provisions, in light of the vagueness challenge, would [*508] avoid or fundamentally alter the constitutional issue raised in this lit…
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  • Babbitt v. United Farm Workers Nat'l Union, 442 U.S. 289 (U.S. 1979)
    …ity powers. Ascertainment of whether there exist the ‘special circumstances/ Propper v. Clark, 337 U. S. 472, prerequisite to its application must be made on a case-by-case basis. Railroad Comm’n v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S. 496, 500; NAACP v. Bennett, 360 U. S. 471.” Baggett v. Bullitt, 377 U. S. 360, 375 (1964). Relevant to the exercise of this equitable discretion, are “the constitutional deprivation alleged and the probable consequences of abstaining.” Harman v. Forssenius, 380 U. S. 528, 537 (1965). “Thi…

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