Cooper v. Aaron

Cooper v. Aaron, 358 U.S. 1 (1958), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that denied the school board of Little Rock, Arkansas the right to delay racial desegregation for 30 months. On September 12, 1958, the Warren Court delivered a decision that held that the states are bound by the Court's decisions and must enforce them even if the states disagree with them, asserting the judicial supremacy established in _Marbury v. Madison _ (1803). The decision in this case upheld the rulings in _Brown v. Board of Education _ and Brown II that had held that the doctrine of separate but equal was unconstitutional .

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**Cooper v. Aaron (358 U.S. 1) **

Contents

• 1 Background

• 2 Supreme Court

  • 2.1 Oral arguments

  • 2.2 Decision

• 3 Critical response

• 4 Significance

• 5 See also

• 6 Notes

• 7 Sources

• 8 External links

Background

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In the wake of _Brown v. Board of Education _ (1954), the school district of Little Rock, Arkansas formulated a plan to desegregate its schools. Meanwhile, other school districts in the state opposed the Supreme Court's rulings and did not make any attempts to desegregate their schools. : 348  The Arkansas state legislature amended the state constitution in 1956 to oppose desegregation and then passed a law relieving children from mandatory attendance at integrated schools.

Caught between the Arkansas voters and the federal government, Governor Orval Faubus agreed to file a lawsuit in state court to enjoin the school board's integration plan. : 350 

On September 3, 1957, the school board filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas , seeking to delay their plan, but the district court ordered them to proceed. : 91  In response, Faubus ordered the National Guard to physically block the Little Rock Nine from entering the school. : 352  On September 20, the federal district court enjoined Faubus from obstructing desegregation orders. Faubus withdrew the National Guard, and according to some accounts, encouraged the mob violence that followed. : 345 

State government officials continued to fan the flames. The actions of the Arkansas governor, especially deploying the National Guard to obstruct desegregation, and rumors that he encouraged vigilantism, most likely escalated the state's conflict with President Eisenhower. Eisenhower demanded that the mob disperse immediately, and deployed federal troops when that order was ignored. : 451 

On February 20, 1958, the school board filed a petition in the district court seeking to delay desegregation because of the danger and disruption to education that would be caused by the public's hostility to the desegregation plan. : 453  The district court granted the school board's request, finding there was "chaos, bedlam and turmoil" at the school, threats of violence against black students, unrest that had an adverse impact on the school's educational purpose, and that the school board could not be expected to carry out the desegregation plan without "military assistance or its equivalent". The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed to hear the case after the NAACP , represented by Thurgood Marshall , appealed. Once the court of appeals handed down its decision in favor of the defendants, the school board appealed to the Supreme Court, which met in a rare summer session to hear arguments. : 452 

Supreme Court

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Oral arguments

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During oral arguments Justices Harlan and Frankfurter noted that the record supported a conclusion that official state actions had instigated much of the local unrest. The attorney for the school board said it was "a head-on collision between the Federal and State Governments" that was beyond the school board's control.The Supreme Court was not inclined to tolerate the state government's challenge of its authority. : 398  The NAACP emphasized the stack of defiant legislative measures awaiting the governor's signature in Arkansas as evidence of officially-sanctioned lawlessness in the state. The President supported this view as well, and his administration argued as amicus for a decision based on the Supremacy Clause. : 399 

Decision

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On September 12, 1958, the Supreme Court issued an opinion jointly authored by all nine Justices—the only instance of that occurring on record—but primarily drafted by Justice Brennan . The Court noted that the school board had acted in good faith, asserting that most of the problems stemmed from the official opposition of the Arkansas state government to racial integration . Nonetheless, it was constitutionally impermissible to maintain law and order by depriving the black students of their equal rights under the law . : 387 

More importantly, the Court held that the Supremacy Clause of Article VI made the US Constitution the supreme law of the land and _Marbury v. Madison _ (1803) made the Supreme Court the final interpreter of the Constitution. This point was targeted by critics of the decision, most famously Alexander Bickel , who wrote in The Least Dangeous Branch that Supreme Court decisions only bind the parties before the Court. : 388 

The Court rejected the contention that the Arkansas legislature and Governor were not bound by the Brown decision. The Supreme Court also rejected the doctrines of nullification and interposition in this case, which had been invoked by segregationists. Segregation supporters argued that the states have the power to nullify federal laws or court rulings that they believe to be unconstitutional and the states could use this power to nullify the Brown decision. The Arkansas laws that attempted to prevent desegregation were Arkansas' effort to nullify the Brown decision. The Supreme Court held 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

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