United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Moore v. Brown, 448 U.S. 1335 (1980)

Moore v. Brown

No. A-195

Decided September 5, 1980

448 U.S. 1335

Syllabus

An application to stay the District Court's preliminary injunction, which ordered Alabama election officials to conduct district, rather than at-large, voting to fill vacancies on the Mobile County School Board, is denied. The District Court may have erred in entering such injunction without hearing further evidence or making fresh findings of fact after its prior decision that the at-large voting system violated the Fourteenth Amendment by diluting the effectiveness of black votes had been vacated and the case had been remanded for further proceedings (see Williams v. Brown, 446 U. S. 236). But in the present posture of the case, the unacceptable alternative to allowing the District Court's preliminary injunction to stand would be to enjoin the coming election entirely and to allow incumbents whose terms have expired to remain in office until an at-large election can be held.