We do not, however, believe that Judge Decker's compliance with the school board request ... similarly represented the official policy of Medina County.... The narrow authority delegated to the county judge in § 4.28 [Tex.Educ.Code], however, bears no relation to his traditional role in the administration of county government or to the discretionary powers delegated to him by state statute in aid of that role. Instead, his duty in implementing section 4.28, much like that of a county sheriff in enforcing a state law, may more fairly be characterized as the effectuation of the policy of the State of Texas embodied in that statute, for which the citizens of a particular county should not bear singular responsibility.
The state cannot dissociate itself from actions taken under its laws by labelling those it commands to act as local officials. A county official pursues his duties as a state agent when he is enforcing state law or policy.
[t]he municipal general election ballot shall contain the names of all candidates who have been put in nomination by the municipal primary election of any political party. There shall be printed on the ballots the names of all persons so nominated, whether the nomination be otherwise known or not....
That the constitution of Mississippi shall never be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote who are entitled to vote by the constitution herein recognized, except as a punishment for such crimes as are now felonies at common law, whereof they shall have been duly convicted under laws equally applicable to all inhabitants of said State....
Every person, who, with, intent to cheat or defraud another, shall designedly, by color of any false token or writing, or by any other false pretence, obtain the signature of any person to any written instrument, or obtain from any person any money, personal property, or valuable thing, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary, not exceeding three years, or in a county jail, not exceeding one year, or by a fine, not exceeding three times the value of the money, property, or thing obtained, or by both such fine or imprisonment.
§ 2855. The terms “felony,” or “infamous crime,” when used in this code, shall be construed to mean offences punished with death, or confinement in the penitentiary.
shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding three years, or in the county jail not exceeding one year, and by fine not exceeding three times the value of the money, property or thing obtained.
If on the trial of any criminal case the justice of the peace discovers that it is a felony, and not a misdemeanor, of which the accused has been guilty, he shall not punish the offender nor render any judgment finally disposing of the case, but shall require him to give bail for his appearance in the circuit court, unless the felony be not bailable, in which case the justice shall commit him without bail.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, ... But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state. (emphasis added)
[f]urther light is shed on the understanding of those who framed and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and thus on the *975 meaning of § 2, by the fact that at the time of the adoption of the Amendment, 29 states had provisions in their constitutions which prohibited, or authorized the legislature to prohibit, exercise of the franchise by persons convicted of felonies or infamous crimes.
[t]hat when the people of any one of said rebel states shall have formed a constitution of government ... framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said state, ... except such as may lie disenfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony at common law, ...
The Senate, being unwilling to embark on the experiment of pure military rule, modified the House Bill by adopting what is known as the Blaine or Sherman Amendment. ... It provided that when the Rebel States should adopt universal suffrage, regardless of color or race, excluding none, white or black, except for treason or such crimes as were felony at the common law....
[t]he convention swept the circle of expedients to obstruct the exercise of the franchise by the negro race. By reason of its previous condition of servitude and dependence, this race had acquired or accentuated certain particularities of habit, of temperament and of character, which clearly distinguished it, as a race, from that of the whites—a patient, docile people, but careless, landless, and migratory within narrow limits, without forethought, and its criminal members given rather to furtive offenses than to the robust crimes of the whites. Restrained by the federal constitution from discriminating against the negro race, the convention discriminated against its characteristics and the offenses to which its weaker members were prone.... Burglary, theft, arson, and obtaining money under false pretenses were declared to be disqualifications, while robbery and murder, and other crimes in which violence was the principal ingredient, were not.
End of Document | © 2024 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. |