Lee v. Washington

This appeal challenges a decree of a three-judge District Court declaring that certain Alabama statutes violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the extent that they require segregation of the races, in prisons and jails, and establishing a schedule for desegregation of these institutions. The State’s contentions that Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which relates to class actions, was violated in this case and that the challenged statutes are not unconstitutional are without merit. The remaining contention of the State is that the specific orders directing desegregation of prisons and jails make no allowance for the necessities of prison security and discipline, but we do not so read the “Order, Judgment and Decree” of the District Court, which when read as a whole we find unexceptionable.

The judgment is affirmed.