United States v. Katherine Ward (Louisiana), Registrar of Voters of Madison Parish, Louisiana, and the State of Louisiana

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge.

The question in the Government’s appeal in this § 1971(c), 42 U.S. C.A. § 1971(c), voter registration suit is whether, having found flagrant racial discrimination pursuant to a pattern or practice, the District Court should have applied the freezing principle to permit Negro applicants to be tested by the standards formerly applied to whites, rather than current higher standards applied to all. Answering in the affirmative, we modify and reverse.

For our purposes the Louisiana requirements for registration and voting may be briefly sketched. Under the Constitution…