J. A. Lester v. Lawrence E. Parker

Appellants question our statement that the only difference between the plaintiffs and all the seamen who are currently being employed is that the plaintiffs have been screened under the void procedures. They say: “The vital difference between appellees and all seamen working is that the latter have affirmatively satisfied the commandant that they are not security risks, whereas appellees have not so satisfied the commandant.” The record here proves that this position is not tenable.

Defendants’ motion to enter judgment pursuant to the mandate was set for hearing on May 2, 1956. May 1, 1956, one day before the hearing, the new regulations were published. The decree was entered July 12, 1956. Prior to May 1, no valid regulations for “satisfying” the commandant existed. The old regulations and procedures were unconstitutional and null and void. No permissible process for screening seamen could antedate May 1. The trial judge knew that neither on May 2d, when the ink on the new regulations was hardly dry, nor on July 12, 1956, had 425,000 working seamen been processed. We do not understand appellants to assert that by either of those dates all these men had affirmatively satisfied…