GRIFFIN ET AL. v. MARYLAND
No. 6
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided June 22, 1964
Arguеd November 5, 7, 1962. -Restored to the calendar for reargument May 20, 1963.- Reargued October 14-15, 1963.
378 U.S. 130
Robert C. Murphy, Deputy Attorney General of Maryland, and Russell R. Reno, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent on the reargument. With Mr. Murphy on the brief were Thomas B. Finan,
Ralph S. Spritzer, by special leave of Court, argued the cаuse for the United States on the reargument, as amicus curiae, urging reversal. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Cox, Assistant Attorney General Marshall, Louis F. Claiborne, Harold H. Greene, Howard A. Glickstein and David Rubin. Mr. Cox, by special leave of Court, argued the cause for the United States on the original argument, as amicus curiae, urging reversal. With him on the brief were Messrs. Marshall, Claiborne and Greene.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court.
Petitioners were convicted of criminal trespass for refusing to leave a privately owned and operated amusement park in the State of Maryland at the command of an employee of the amusement park acting under color of his authority as a deputy sheriff. For the reasons set forth hereinafter we hold that these convictions are violative of the
The Glen Echo Amusement Park is located in Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, D. C. Though the park through its advertisements sought the patronage of the general public, it was (until recently) the park‘s policy to exclude Negroes who wished to patronize its facilities. No signs at the park apprised persons of this policy or otherwise indicated that all cоmers were not welcome. No tickets of admission were required. In protest against the park‘s policy of segre-
At that time the park employed one Collins as a special policeman by arrangement with the National Detective Agency. Although Collins was formally retained and paid by the agency and wore its uniform, he was subject to the control and direction of the park management. Aрparently at the request of the park, Collins had been deputized as a sheriff of Montgomery County.1 He wore, on the outside of his uniform, a deputy sheriff‘s badge.
When Collins saw the petitioners sitting on the carousel waiting for the ride to begin, he reported their presence to the park manager. The manager told Collins that petitioners were to be arrested for trespassing if they would not leave the park. Collins then went up to the petitioners and told them that it was the park‘s policy “not to have colored people on the rides, or in the park.” He ordered petitioners to leave within five minutes. They declined to do so, pointing out that they had tickets for the carousel. There was no evidence that any of the
“Francis J. Collins, being first duly sworn, on oаth doth depose and say: That he is a member of the Montgomery deputy sheriff Department and as such, on the 30th day of June, 1960, at about the hour of 8:45 P. M. he did observe the defendant William L. Griffin in Glen Echo Park which is private property[.] [O]n order of Kebar Inc. owners of Glen Echo Park the def[endant] was asked to leave the park and after giving him reasonable time to comply the def[endant] refused to leave [and] he was placed under arrest for trespassing ....
“Whereas, Francis J. Collins doth further depose and say that he, as a member of the Montgomery County Police Deрartment believes that ----- is violating Sec. 577 Article 27 of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
“Francis J. Collins.”
Petitioners were tried and convicted of criminal trespass in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County. Each was sentenced to pay a fine of $100. The Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions. 225 Md. 422, 171 A. 2d 717. That court, rejecting the petitioners’ constitutional claims, reasoned as follows:
“[T]he appellants in this case ... were arrested for criminal trespass committed in the presence of a special deputy sheriff of Montgomery County (who was also the agent of the park operator) after they had been duly notified to leave but refused to do so. It follows—since the offense for which these appellants were arrested was a misdemeanor committed in the presence of the park officer who had a right to arrest them, either in his private capacity as аn agent or employee of the operator of the park or in his limited capacity as a special deputy sheriff in the amusement park ... the arrest of these appellants for a criminal trespass in this manner was no more than if a regular police officer had been called upon
We granted certiorari, 370 U. S. 935, and set the case for reargument. 373 U. S. 920.
Collins—in ordering the petitioners to leave the park and in arresting and instituting prosecutions against them—purported to exercise the authority of a deputy sheriff. He wore a sheriff‘s badge and consistently idеntified himself as a deputy sheriff rather than as an employee of the park. Though an amended warrant was filed stating that petitioners had committed an offense because they entered the park after an “agent” of the park told them not to do so, this change has little, if any, bеaring on the character of the authority which Collins initially purported to exercise. If an individual is possessed of state authority and purports to act under that authority, his action is state action. It is irrelevant that he might have taken the same action had he acted in a purеly private capacity or that the particular action which he took was not authorized by state law. See, e. g., Screws v. United States, 325 U. S. 91. Thus, it is clear that Collins’ action was state action. See Williams v. United States, 341 U. S. 97; see also Labor Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 331 U. S. 416, 429. The only question remaining in this case is whether Collins’ action denied petitioners the equal proteсtion of the laws secured to them by the
It cannot be disputed that if the State of Maryland had operated the amusement park on behalf of the owner thereof, and had enforced the owner‘s policy of racial seg-
“The Board which operates Girard College is an agency of the State of Pennsylvaniа. Therefore, even though the Board was acting as a trustee, its refusal to admit Foust and Felder to the college because they were Negroes was discrimination by the State. Such discrimination is forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483.” 353 U. S., at 231.
The Board of Trusts case must be taken to establish thаt to the extent that the State undertakes an obligation to enforce a private policy of racial segregation, the State is charged with racial discrimination and violates the
It is argued that the State may nevertheless constitutionally enforce an owner‘s desire tо exclude particular persons from his premises even if the owner‘s desire is in turn motivated by a discriminatory purpose. The State, it is said, is not really enforcing a policy of segregation since the owner‘s ultimate purpose is immaterial to the State. In this case it cannot be sаid that Collins was simply enforcing the park management‘s desire to exclude designated individuals from the premises. The president
Reversed.
MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS would reverse for the reasons stated in his opinion in Bell v. Maryland, post, p. 242.
MR. JUSTICE CLARK, concurring.
I join the Court‘s opinion with the understanding that it merely holds, under the peculiar facts here, that the State “must be recognized as a joint participant in the challenged activity.” See Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U. S. 715, 725 (1961). Deputy Sheriff Collins, an agent оf the State, was regularly employed by Glen Echo in the enforcement of its segregation policy. I cannot, therefore, say, as does my Brother HARLAN, that the situation “is no different from what it would have been had the arrests been made by a regular policeman dispatched from pоlice headquarters.” Here Collins, the deputy sheriff, ordered petitioners to leave the park before any charges were filed. Upon refusal, Collins, the deputy sheriff, made the arrest and then took petitioners to the police station where he filed the charges and secured the warrant. If
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, whom MR. JUSTICE BLACK and MR. JUSTICE WHITE join, dissenting.
The pivotal issue in this case is whether petitioners’ exclusion from Glen Echo, a private amusement park, was the product of state action. I accept the premise that in arresting these petitioners Collins was exercising his authority as deputy sheriff rather than his right as an individual under Maryland law, see 225 Md., at 431, 171 A. 2d, at 721, to arrest them for a misdemeanor being committed in his presence. It seems clear to me, however, that the involvement of the State is nо different from what it would have been had the arrests been made by a regular policeman dispatched from police headquarters.
I believe, therefore, that this case is controlled by the principles discussed in MR. JUSTICE BLACK‘s opinion in Bell v. Maryland, post, p. 318, decided today, and accordingly would affirm the judgment below.