14
need be shown is that it deals with voting. Since at
that point the federal authorities have jurisdiction, the
question of what provisions do deal with voting should
also be submitted to those authorities, at least in the
case of provisions "arguably subject" to that jurisdiction. Compare San Diego Bldg. Trades Council v.
Garmon, 359 U.S. 236, 245 (1959).
The proper relief here would have been to enjoin the
elections affected by the state's enforcement of the
statute. Bush v. Martin, 224 F. Supp. 449 (S.D. Tex.
1963), aff'd, 376 U.S. 222 (1964). Having sought such
relief, appellants are now entitled to have the improperly-held elections set aside, Hamer v. Campbell,
358 F.2d 215 (5th Cir. 1966), and the use of the statute
in the 1968 and subsequent elections enjoined.
CONCLUSION
House Bill No. 68 is no more than an inventive
means of maintaining white political supremacy
in Mississippi which has resulted from denying Negroes the vote for many years. Yet because the statute
does not say in so many words that former slaves may
not vote or that the state voting registrar may register
whomever he pleases, it is claimed that this statute
does not deal with a voting practice or procedure. Appellants submit that this sort of "extraordinary stratagem of contriving new rules of various kinds for the
sole purpose of perpetuating voting discrimination"14
14 South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 335 (1966). What
this Court meant was well described by the Attorney General, testifying before the House of Representatives i
"Mr. Katzenbach: The justification is simply this: Our experience in the areas that would be covered by this Bill has been
such as to indicate frequently on the part of state legislatures
15
was precisely what Congress expected from the State
of Mississippi. Mississippi should not be allowed to
thwart Congress by the devious expedient of calling a
spade a shovel and saying they are different.
For the reasons stated above, this Court should note
probable jurisdiction and reverse the judgment of the
court below.
Respectfully submitted,
Armant> Derfner
Alvin J. Bronstein
James A. Lewis
603 North Farish Street
Jackson, Mississippi    39202
Of Counsel:
Richard B. Sobol
606 Common Street
New Orleans, Louisiana
a desire in a sense to outguess the Congress of the United
States. I refer, for example to the new voter qualifications
that have been put into statutes of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama following the enactment of the 1964 Act which made
things more difficult for people to vote ....
"The same thing was true, as the Chairman may recall, in
Louisiana at the time of the initial school desegregation, where
the legislature passed I don't know how many laws in the
shortest period of time. Everytime the judge issued a decree,
the legislature . . . passed a law to frustrate that decree."
House Hearings 60.