A Federal District Court entered an order authorizing public
school officials of Little Rock, Ark., to suspend until January,
1961, a plan of racial integration previously approved by that
Court and affirmed by the Court of Appeals, and it denied a stay of
its suspension order pending appeal. After an appeal to the Court
of Appeals had been docketed and application for a stay had been
made to that Court, petitioners applied to this Court for a writ of
certiorari to review the order of the District Court before the
Court of Appeals had had an opportunity to act on the petition for
a stay or to hear the appeal.
Held: the writ is denied on the assumption that the
Court of Appeals will act upon the application for a stay or the
appeal in ample time to permit arrangements to be made for the next
school year. Pp.
357 U. S.
566-567.
PER CURIAM.
On June 21, 1958, the District Court for the Eastern District of
Arkansas entered an order authorizing the members of the School
Board of Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Superintendent of Schools,
to suspend until January, 1961, a plan of integration theretofore
approved by that court in August, 1956,
Aaron v.
Cooper, 143 F.
Supp. 855, and affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit in April, 1957. 243 F.2d 361. On June 23, 1958, the
District Court denied an application for a stay of execution of its
order. An appeal was docketed in the
Page 357 U. S. 567
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on June 24, 1958, and
there is pending in that court an application for a stay of the
District Court's order.
By the present petition, this Court is asked to bring the case
here before the Court of Appeals has had an opportunity to act upon
the petition for a stay or to hear the appeal. The power of the
Court to do so has been exercised but rarely, and the issues and
circumstances relevant to the present petition do not warrant its
exercise now. The order that the District Court suspended has, in
different postures, been before the Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit three times already.
Aaron v. Cooper, 243 F.2d
361;
Thomason v. Cooper, 254 F.2d 808 (April 28, 1958);
Faubus v. United States, 254 F.2d 797 (April 28, 1958).
That court is the regular court for reviewing orders of the
District Court here concerned, and the appeal and the petition for
a stay are matters properly to be adjudicated by it in the first
instance.
We have no doubt that the Court of Appeals will recognize the
vital importance of the time element in this litigation, and that
it will act upon the application for a stay or the appeal in ample
time to permit arrangements to be made for the next school
year.
Accordingly, the petition for certiorari is
Denied.
