National Affairs: Integration Delayed

The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision, drawled Federal District Judge William Hawley Atwell in Dallas last week, was not based on law but "rather, on what the court regarded as more authoritative, modern psychological knowledge than existed at the time that the now-discarded doctrine of equal facilities was initiated ... I might suggest that if there are civil rights, there are also civil wrongs." So saying, Judge Atwell, a peppery, 87-year-old veteran of 33 years on the federal bench, ruled that the Dallas public schools need not integrate "at the present time."

The Supreme Court's reliance on social science books instead of law books in its desegregation decision has disturbed many lawyers far more friendly to integration than string-tied Southerner Atwell. But the Dallas case brought into focus the question of whether a lower court judge can nullify a Supreme Court decision simply because he does not happen to agree with it. Judge Atwell's ruling is sure to be appealed and almost as certain to be reversed. Nevertheless, the processes of appeal take time—and Judge William Hawley Atwell has singlehanded staved off integration in Dallas for at least another year.