Bell v. Maryland

Infobox SCOTUS case
Litigants=Bell v. Maryland
ArgueDateA=October 14
ArgueDateB=October 15
ArgueYear=1963
DecideDate=June 22
DecideYear=1964
FullName=Robert Mack Bell et at., v. Maryland
USVol=378
USPage=226
Citation=12 L. Ed.2d 822, 84 S. Ct. 1814
Prior=227 Md. 302, 176 A.2d 771 (1962) (upholding conviction)
Subsequent=236 Md. 356, 204 A.2d 54 (1964) (upholding conviction); 236 Md. 356, rehearing granted and conviction reversed (Apr. 9, 1965).
Holding=The Supreme Court vacated the judgment and remanded to the Court of Appeals of Maryland to allow consideration whether a change in state law should result in dismissal of the convictions.
SCOTUS=1962-1965
Majority=Brennan
JoinMajority=Warren, Clark, Stewart, Goldberg
Concurrence=Goldberg
JoinConcurrence=Warren, Douglas
Concurrence2=Douglas
JoinConcurrence/Dissent=
Dissent=Black
JoinDissent=Harlan, White
LawsApplied=

"Bell v. Maryland", 378 U.S. 226 (1964), [ussc|378|226|Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com] provided an opportunity for the Supreme Court of the United States to determine whether racial discrimination in the provision of public accommodations by a privately-owned restaurant violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, due to a supervening change in the state law, the Court vacated the judgment of the Maryland Court of Appeals and remanded the case to allow that court to determine whether the convictions for criminal trespass of twelve African American students should be dismissed.

Background

In 1960 twelve African American students were part of a group which conducted a sit-in at Hooper's restaurant in downtown Baltimore, Maryland, where they had been refused service. When they refused to leave, they were arrested, convicted of criminal trespass in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, and fined $10. They appealed their convictions to the highest court in Maryland, the Court of Appeals, which upheld their conviction. They then appealed to the Supreme Court, which greanted certiorari.

Court's decision

Although the Court had been briefed regarding whether the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment were applicable to the restaurant, the majority opinion noted that both the City of Baltimore and Maryland had passed laws forbidding racial discrimination by an owner or operator of a place of public accommodation. The state antidiscrimination statute went further and forbad discrimination in public accommodations for sleeping or eating on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. The opinion, consistent with the Court's practice when a significant supervening change in law has occurred, vacate the criminal convictions of the students and remanded the case back to the Maryland Court of Appeals to allow it to consider whether the convictions should be dismissed under the current state law. The Court noted that the common law of Maryland held that when the legislature has repealed a criminal statute or otherwise makes conduct that once was a crime legal, a state court would dismiss any pending criminal proceeding charging such conduct. Lastly, the majority opinion noted that although Maryland had a savings statute, which preserves criminal convictions and penalties when criminal statutes are amended, reenacted, revised, or repealed, unless the legislation implementing the amendment, reenactment, revision, or repeal expressly provided that such convictions or penalties should be reduced or vacated. The Court did not believe that the Maryland savings statute would be applicable to the new antidiscrimination statute.

The concurring opinion by Justice Goldberg states that, while the majority opinion is correct, if the case were properly before the Court, under the Fourteenth Amendment the cases should be vacated. The concurring opinion by Justice Douglas would reach the merits of the case and vacate the convictions with direction that the cases be dismissed. The dissenting opinion by Justice Black would affirm the decision of the Maryland Court of Appeals that the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to the convictions for criminal trespass on private property.

Critical response

"Bell v. Maryland" was one of five cases involving segregation protests decided on June 22, 1964. The other four cases were "Griffin v. Maryland", 378 U.S. 130 (1964), "Barr v. City of Columbia", 378 U.S. 146 (1964), "Robinson v. Florida", 378 U.S. 153 (1964), and "Bouie v. City of Columbia", 378 U.S. 347 (1964). In none of these cases did the Supreme Court reach the merits of any argument addressing whether private actions of segregation which are enforced by state courts constituted a state action which violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.cite journal|last=Webster|first=McKenzie|title=The Warren Court's Struggle With the Sit-In Cases and the Constitutionality of Segregation in Places of Public Accommodations|journal=Journal of Law and Politics|volume=17|issue=Spring 2001|pages=373-407|date= |url= |accessdate= ] These decisions were announced two days after the Senate ended a filibuster and passed the bill which would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in public accommodations. It has been suggested that the Supreme Court refrained from reaching the merits in these cases in consideration of the Act, had it done so it would have eliminated the basis for passing the legislation.

ubsequent developments

The convictions were vacted by the Court of Appeals of Maryland on April 9, 1965, and the City of Baltimore was directed to pay the cost of the appeal to the Supreme Court of $462.93 to Robert M. Bell, [Court of Appeals of Maryland order on rehearing (Apr. 9, 2008)] the named defendant in the case. Robert Bell's listing as the named defendant was accidental as his name was alphabetically first among the thirteen arrested students. [cite journal|last=Reynolds|first=William L. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=The Legal History of the Great Sit-In Case of Bell v. Maryland|journal=Maryland Law Review|volume=61|issue= |pages=761-794|publisher= |location= |date=2002|url= |doi= |id= |accessdate=]

The "Bell" case was remanded by the Supreme Court essentially to determine whether a pending conviction for activity in protest of segregation should be vacated when the segregated activity became proscribed by later state legislation. The Supreme Court later answered this question affirmatively in "Hamm v. City of Rock Hill", 379 U.S. 306 (1964), for prosecutions for activities protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Robert M. Bell later became an attorney and in 1984 was appointed as a Judge to the Maryland Court of Appeals, a court that had ruled against him in "Bell v. Maryland", and where he became its Chief Judge in 1996. That court's prior Chief Judge was Robert C. Murphy, who when he had been a deputy attorney general attempted to uphold Bell's trespassing conviction for the sit-in and is listed by name on the state's brief to the Supreme Court in the case. [12 L. Ed.2d 1335-36 (Briefs of Counsel in "Bell v. Maryland")]

The Maryland state archives, as a teaching tool, has posted all of the legal papers associated with the case from each of its phases online. [cite web|last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Desegregation of Maryland's Restaurants: Robert Mack Bell v. Maryland|work=Teaching American History in Maryland: Documents for the Classroom|publisher=Maryland State Archives|date= |url= http://teachingamericanhistorymd.net/000001/000000/000032/html/t32.html|format= |doi= |accessdate=2008-05-26]

References

ee also

*African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)
*List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 378