and declare null
and void the special clause of the Alabama constitution. The court
answered this petition with certain observations disclaiming
jurisdiction largely for "want of merit in the averments which were
made in the complaint as to the violation of Federal rights."

The court held that if the registrars acting at this election in
Alabama had no authority under the new constitution, which the
petitioner prayed that the court might declare null and void, they
could not legally register the plaintiff. If they had authority, they
were within their right to use their discretion. If this clause in the
constitution should be struck down according to the prayer of the
plaintiff, there would be no board to which the mandamus could be
issued. The Supreme Court, therefore, held that no damage had been
suffered because no refusal to register by a board constituted in
defiance of the Federal Constitution could disqualify a legal voter
otherwise entitled to exercising the electorate franchise, since this
amounts to a decision upon an independent non-Federal ground
sufficient to sustain the judgment without reference to the Federal
question presented. It observed, moreover, that the bill imported that
the great mass of the white population intended to keep the blacks
from voting. To meet such an intent something more than ordering the
plaintiff named to be inscribed upon the lists of 1902 would be
needed.

Giving his dissenting opinion in this case, Justice Brewer showed that
"although the statute and these decisions thus expressly limit the
range of inquiry to the question of jurisdiction, it was held that
there is a constitutional question shown in the pleadings. The
certificate, therefore, might be ignored and the entire case presented
to the court for consideration.... Hence every case coming up on a
certificate of jurisdiction may be held to present a constitutional
question and be open for full inquiry in respect to all matters
involved." Brewer would not assent to the proposition that the case
presented was not a strictly legal one and entitling a party to a
judicial hearing and decision. "He is a citizen of Alabama entitled to
vote. He wanted to vote at an election for a Representative in
Congress. Without registration he could not, and registration was
wrongfully denied him. That many others were thus treated does not
deprive him of his right or deprive him of relief." Justice Harlan
dissented also giving practica