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256

MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT

it becomes an issue the Court must say, in a manner that cannot be misunderstood, throughout the length and breadth of this land: There can be no equality of justice for our people if the law steps aside, even for a moment, at the command of force and violence.

Narrator: Richard Butler made a final appeal for delay.

Butler: All we're asking, all we're asking at this time, is for time, to try to do those things and work out these problems that may bring peace and harmony, and do it in a period of calm when they can be done and not in a period of turmoil and strife.

Can it be logically argued that the ruling of this Court can be carried out, as this Court said it should, in an effective manner, when schools are closed, or if operated at all, with armed troops parading not only the grounds but the halls and classrooms themselves? Patience and forbearance for a short while might save our public school system in Little Rock.

Narrator: The justices had no patience with appeals for delay. The day after this argument, on September 12th, 1958, the Court issued a three-paragraph opinion. The justices unanimously affirmed the lower court orders that integration of Little Rock schools proceed without delay.

Two weeks later the Court issued a longer, detailed opinion. Normally, one justice writes for the Court. In this case -- to emphasize its importance -- all nine justices signed the opinion. They agreed that the case "raises questions of the highest importance" to the federal system of government. They rejected the claim that, in their words, "there is no duty on state officials to obey federal court orders resting on this Court's considered interpretation of the United States Constitution."

Arkansas officials attempted, the Court said, "to perpetuate . . . the system of racial segregation which this Court" struck down in the Brown case. The opinion documented the record of violence against black students, inside and outside Central High School. The justices wrote that "violent resistance" to integration was "directly traceable" to Governor Faubus and Arkansas lawmakers. The justices did not mince words. "The constitutional rights" of black children, they said, "are not to be sacrificed or yielded to the violence and disorder which have followed upon the actions of the Governor and Legislature."

The justices firmly upheld the judicial supremacy over state action. The Brown decision "is the supreme law of the land," they said. They expressed contempt for officials like Governor Faubus who waged, in their words, "war against the Constitution."

War over school integration continued after the Court's ruling. Little Rock