LEGRES/LEGWRIT 2013-2014

CABANGON, Eunis Flamme S. L-130147

First Year 1H 9/19/13
Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1, 78 S. Ct. 1401, 3 L. Ed. 2d 5 (1958)
FACTS: Petitioner, the school board of Little Rock, Arkansas, had sought to
implement a program of desegregation of children in compliance with the Brown
v. Board of Education declaring state laws establishing separate public schools for
black and white students unconstitutional. However, the petitioner filed a suit to
the district court to suspend court orders to implement the desegregation program
for a period of two and a half years, claiming that the resistance by the state
government and public hostility made it impossible to maintain a sound education
program for both the American and African-American children. The states
governor wishes to have the state legislature make it legal to segregate; he argues
that the case is only binding until the state legislates otherwise. The district court
granted the school board's request.
On the other hand, the respondents contested that their constitutional right should
not be yielded under conditions of chaos and prayed for a faster desegregation
program filed a request to the Supreme Court to render decision but was denied
without waiting for the appeals court to deliberate on the case. United States Court
of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit's the reversed the decision of the district court.
Hence, the appeal resulted.
LEGRES/LEGWRIT 2013-2014
ISSUE: Whether or not state government officials are bound by federal court
orders and rulings based upon the Supreme Courts interpretation of the
Constitution in mandating desegregation
THE DECISION: Yes. Every state is bound by not only the United States
Constitution, but also all cases decided by the United State Supreme Court.
Although each state has its own authority, that sovereignty is arranged by the
United States Constitution. More significantly, the Court held that since the
Supremacy Clause of Article VI made the U.S. Constitution the supreme law of the
land and the Supreme Court has the power of judicial review, hence, the standard
set forth in Brown v. Board of Education is the supreme law of the land and is
consequently obligatory on all the states, even though such state has laws opposing
it.
The Arkansas laws that tried to prevent desegregation were Arkansas' effort to
abolish the Brown decision and are therefore held void. The Supreme Court further
upheld that the Brown decision "can neither be nullified openly and directly by
state legislators or state executive or judicial officers nor nullified indirectly by
them through evasive schemes for segregation." Nevertheless, it was
constitutionally impermissible under the Equal Protection Clause to preserve law
and order by depriving the African-American students their equal rights under the
law. The United States Constitution under the 14th amendment will not permit
LEGRES/LEGWRIT 2013-2014
States to victimize children based on their race. Also it is identified that no state
may wage war in contradiction with the federal government.
The Court therefore nullified the argument that the Arkansas legislature and
governor were not bound by the Brown decision and denied the suspension of
desegregation program.