This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing on exceptions a petition in an action at law to recover damages for being deprived of the right to register as a voter in the state of Louisiana. The plaintiff is a negro, and the defendant is the registrar of voters for Orleans parish. The petition was brought under
8 USCA § 43, which provides that every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, etc., subjects any citizen to the deprivation of any right, privilege, or immunity secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States, shall be liable to any injured party in an action at law or other proper proceeding. The petition on its face attempts to allege two causes of action: One, assuming the validity of the Louisiana Constitution and laws relating to registration, for arbitrarily refusing to register the plaintiff; and the other for refusing registration in obedience to the so-called ‘Understanding Clause’ of the Louisiana Constitution which it is alleged is violative of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. To the first canse of action defendant excepted on the ground of vagueness, and to the second on the ground of no cause of action. The plaintiff's allegations of the effect that the registrar acted arbitrarily stated no facts sufficient to show that he was entitled to registration. Although given an opportunity to do so, he declined to amend, stating in his brief that, had he done so, he would have recognized the validity of the State Constitution and laws on the subject of registration; that he merely called attention to those laws by way of recitation, and that his real purpose was to have them declared to be contrary to the Federal Constitution. We therefore are called upon to consider only the second ground of the action, which is that he was entitled to registration, notwithstanding the understanding clause of the State Constitution. That clause reads as follows: ‘Said applicant [for registration] shall also be able to read any clause in this Constitution, or the Constitution of the United States, and give a reasonable interpretation thereof.’
Const. 1921, art. 8, § 1. The same article in
section 5 provides that any person possessing the qualifications for voting who may be denied registration shall have the right to apply for relief to the district court for the parish in which he offers to register; that the court shall then try the cause, giving it preference over all other cases, before a jury whose verdict shall be final, except that the complaining party is given the right of appeal to the appropriate appellate court. The application and appeal are entertained and allowed without cost to the applicant.