Howard Kaplan amp Tiffany Middleton American Bar Association Division for Public Education Illinois Council for History Education March 4 2016 wwwambarorgpublicedevents Walker v Birmingham ID: 757549
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The Supreme Court Case behind King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Howard Kaplan & Tiffany Middleton,American Bar Association Division for Public Education
Illinois Council for History Education
March 4, 2016Slide2
www.ambar.org/publicedeventsSlide3
Walker v. Birmingham (1967)provides powerful lens to:
review the seminal events of Birmingham in April/May1963analyze a historic Supreme Court opinion as an exemplary text blending narrative, information, and persuasive argument
consider the relationship between civil disobedience and the rule of law
Martin Luther King, Jr. with Wyatt Tee WalkerSlide4
Why was Martin Luther King, Jr. in jail?Slide5
small group discussionIdentify the source of excerpt—who, what, when, why?Identify 1-2 key points in the documentSelect a facilitator and discuss as a group
Assign a reporter to share conclusionsSlide6
Text 1Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion in Walker v. Birmingham:
…officials of Birmingham, Alabama, filed a bill of complaint in a state circuit court asking for injunctive relief against 139 individuals and two organizations. … one of the petitioners announced that “injunction or no injunction we are going to march tomorrow.”Violence occurred.…quite a different constitutional posture if the petitioners, before disobeying the injunction, had challenged it in the Alabama courts…”…in the fair administration of justice no man can be judge in his own case…”….respect for judicial process is a small price to pay for the civilizing hand of law.”Slide7
Text 2Justice William Brennan’s dissent in Walker v. Birmingham:
Petitioners are eight Negro Ministers.…issued statements that they would refuse to comply with what they believed to be, and is indeed, a blatantly unconstitutional restraining order.”We cannot permit fears of 'riots' and 'civil disobedience' generated by slogans like 'Black Power' to divert our attention from what is here at stake—not violence or the right of the State to control its streets and sidewalks, but the insulation from attack of … restraints on the exercise of First Amendment rights …Slide8
Text 3Chief Justice Earl Warren’s Dissent in Walker v. Birmingham:
…These facts lend no support to the court’s charges that petitioners were presuming to act as judges in their own case, or that they had a disregard for the judicial process. The record in this case hardly suggests that Commissioner Connor and the other city officials were motivated in prohibiting civil rights picketing only by their overwhelming concern for particular traffic problems. … This injunction was such potent magic that it transformed the command of an unconstitutional statute into an impregnable barrier, challengeable only in what likely would have been protracted legal proceedings and entirely superior in the meantime even to the United States Constitution. …Slide9
Text 4Parade Ordinance for the City of Birmingham in Alabama, 1963It shall be unlawful to organize or hold, or to assist in organizing or holding, or to take part or participate in, any . . . public demonstration on the streets or other public ways of the city, unless a permit therefor has been secured from the commission. To secure such a permit, written application shall be made to the commission, setting forth the probable number of persons, vehicles and animals which will be engaged in such . . . public demonstration, the purpose for which it is to be held or had, and the streets or other public ways over, along or in which it is desired to have or hold such . . . public demonstration. The commission shall grant a written permit for such . . . public demonstration, prescribing the streets or other public ways which may be used therefor, unless in its judgment the public welfare, peace, safety, health, decency, good order, morals or convenience require that it be refused
.Slide10
Text 4Temporary Injunction filed in City of Birmingham v. Wyatt Tee Walker et als
, April 10, 1963It is therefore ordered adjudged and decreed by the Court that … the respondents … having notice of said order from continuing any act herein above designated particularly: engaging in, sponsoring, inciting, or encouraging mass street parades or mass processions or like demonstrations without a permit, trespass (sic.) on private property after being warned to leave the premises by the owner or person in possession of said private property, congregating on the street or public places into mobs, and unlawfully picketing business establishments or public buildings …, Slide11
Text 5Ministers’ Statement to press, April 11, 1963…
This is raw tyranny under the guise of maintaining law and order. We cannot in all good conscience obey such an injunction which is an unjust, undemocratic and unconstitutional misuse of the legal process.”…Slide12
Text 6Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” April 1963…I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law
.”…Slide13
TimelinEThe U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Walker v. Birmingham. At issue is whether the April
10, 1963 ex parte temporary injunction violated the First Amendment rights of Walker and the other petitioners.
March 13-14, 1967Slide14
TimelinEThe U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in favor of Birmingham, holding that the court-ordered injunction was valid and that the petitioners had disobeyed it before first challenging it through the judicial process.
June 12,
1967Slide15
TimelinEDr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker return to Birmingham from Atlanta to serve their jail sentences for contempt of court for defying the injunction.
October 30, 1967Slide16
TimelinEIn an 8-0 unanimous decision in Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, the U.S. Supreme Court determines that the Birmingham parade ordinance at issue in the Walker case is unconstitutional on First
Amendment grounds.
March 10, 1969Slide17
Thank you for joining us!