NAACP v. Alabama

NAACP v. Alabama
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 15–16, 1958 Decided June 30, 1958
Full case name	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, Attorney General
Citations	357 U.S. 449 (more) 78 S. Ct. 1163; 2 L. Ed. 2d 1488; 1958 U.S. LEXIS 1802
Prior history	Cert. to the Supreme Court of Alabama
Holding
The Court decided in favor of the petitioners, holding that "Immunity from state scrutiny of petitioner's membership lists is here so related to the right of petitioner's members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in doing so as to come within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment" and, further, that freedom to associate with organizations dedicated to the "advancement of beliefs and ideas" is an inseparable part of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority	Harlan, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Alabama, 357 US 449 (1958), was an important civil rights case brought before the United States Supreme Court.

Alabama sought to prevent the NAACP from conducting further business in the state. After the circuit court issued a restraining order, the state issued a subpoena for various records, including the NAACP's membership lists. The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's demand for the lists had violated the right of due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In 1956, the Attorney General of Alabama, John Patterson, brought a suit to the State Circuit Court of Montgomery, Alabama, challenging the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for violation of a state statute requiring foreign corporations to qualify before doing business in the state. The NAACP, a nonprofit membership corporation based in New York, had not complied with the statute, as it believed it was exempt. The state suit sought both to prevent the Association from conducting further business within the state and, indeed, to remove it from the state.

Referring to the Association's involvement with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and its role in funding and providing legal assistance to black students' seeking admission to the state university, the suit charged that the Association was ". . . causing irreparable injury to the property and civil rights of the residents and citizens of the State of Alabama for which criminal prosecution and civil actions at law afford no adequate relief . . . ." On the day this suit was filed, the circuit court agreed to issue an ex parte order restraining the Association from conducting business in the state or taking steps to qualify it to do so.