Browder v. Gayle

Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707 (1956), was a case heard before a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on Montgomery and Alabama state bus segregation laws. The panel consisted of Middle District of Alabama Judge Frank Minis Johnson, Northern District of Alabama Judge Seybourn Harris Lynne, and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Rives. On June 5, 1956 the District Court ruled 2-1, with Lynne dissenting, that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment protections for equal treatment.

The state and city appealed, and the decision was summarily affirmed by the United States Supreme Court on November 13, 1956. A motion for clarification and for rehearing was denied on December 17, 1956.

Shortly after beginning the Montgomery Bus Boycott in December 1955, black community leaders began to discuss filing a federal lawsuit to challenge the City of Montgomery and Alabama bus segregation laws. They sought a declaratory judgment that Alabama state statutes and ordinances of the city of Montgomery providing for and enforcing racial segregation on "privately" operated buses were in violation of Fourteenth Amendment protections for equal treatment.

The cause of action was brought under Reconstruction-era civil rights legislation, specifically 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983. The United States District Court had original jurisdiction to hear this case under Title 28 of U.S.C. because it is a federal question (§ 1331) and because it concerns civil rights (§ 1343). A three-judge district court panel was required under 28 U.S.C. § 2281 for the granting of an interlocutory, or permanent injunction restraining the enforcement of a state statute by restraining the action of a state officer, such as an official of the Alabama Public Service Commission. The court held that, given the admission of officials that they were enforcing state statutes, a three-judge court had jurisdiction over the case.

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