Cassell v. Texas (339 U.S. 282)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 24, 1950 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 339 U.S. 282 · 70 S. Ct. 629
- Docket
- No. 46
- Argued
- November 10, 1949
- Decided
- April 24, 1950
- Term
- October Term 1949
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Clark (wrote a concurrence), Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Black
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Minton, Justice Burton, Justice Frankfurter (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed announced the judgment of the Court and an opinion in which The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Black and Mr. Justice Clark concurred. Review was sought in this case to determine whether there had been a violation by Texas of petitioner’s federal constitutional right to a fair and impartial grand jury. The federal question was raised by a motion to quash the indictment on the ground that petitioner, a Negro, suffered unconstitutional discrimination through the selection of white men only for the grand jury that indicted him. After full hearing, the trial court denied the motion, and this action was sustained by the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas in affirming petitioner’s conviction. Cassell v. State, 154 Tex. Cr. R. -, 216 S. W. 2d 813. The Court of Criminal Appeals accepted the federal rule that a Negro is denied the equal protection of the laws when he is indicted by a grand jury from which Negroes as a race have been intentionally excluded. Cassell v. State, supra, 154 Tex. Cr. R. at -, 216 S. W. 2d at 819; Neal v. Delaware, 103 U. S. 370, 394; Smith v. Texas, 311 U. S. 128, 130; Hill v. Texas, 316 U. S. 400, 404; Akins v. Texas, 325 U. S. 398, 403. It was from an examination of facts that the court deduced its conclusion that racial discrimination had not been practiced. Since the result reached may deny a federal right, we may reexamine the facts to…
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