Seybourn Harris Lynne

Seybourn Harris Lynne (July 25, 1907 – September 10, 2000) was an American jurist. He was United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He was Chief judge of the court from 1953 to 1973. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving judge on the federal bench, having served from 1946 to 2000, the last 27 of which in Senior status.

Seybourn Harris Lynne
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
In office January 9, 1973 – September 10, 2000
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
In office 1953–1973
Preceded by	Clarence H. Mullins
Succeeded by	Frank Hampton McFadden
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
In office January 3, 1946 – January 9, 1973
Appointed by	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Thomas Alexander Murphree
Succeeded by	James Hughes Hancock
Personal details
Born	Seybourn Harris Lynne July 25, 1907 Decatur, Alabama
Died	September 10, 2000 (aged 93) Birmingham, Alabama
Education	Auburn University (B.S.) University of Alabama School of Law (LL.B.)

Early life and career

Lynne was born in Decatur, Alabama in 1907. His father, Seybourn Arthur Lynne, was at attorney who served in the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate.[1] Lynne received a Bachelor of Science degree from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) in 1927 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1930. He was in private practice in Decatur from 1930 to 1934. In 1934, he was elected as a judge in Morgan County.[2] He was elected a judge for the Eighth Circuit of Alabama in 1940. In 1942, Lynne joined the United States Army, where he served in the JAG Corps during World War II. He served through 1946 and advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel. [2][3]

Federal judicial service

On December 14, 1945, Lynne was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama vacated by Judge Thomas Alexander Murphree. Lynne was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 20, 1945, and received his commission on January 3, 1946. In 1953, he became the Chief Judge of the court.

Lynne was involved in a number of civil rights cases during his service. On June 5, 1956, in the Browder v. Gayle case, the District Court ruled 2-1, that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Lynne write the dissenting opinion in the case.[4] In this case, Lynne's dissent was based on his belief that Brown v. Board of Education desegregated only educational facilities; but for other public services Plessy v. Ferguson remained in effect. This was the first case that extended desegregation to additional facilities, effectively overruling the Supreme Court in Plessy.[5][6]

In 1957, in the Baldwin v Morgan case, Judge Lynne refused to order the desegregation of waiting rooms at Birmingham Terminal Station after two black residents were arrested for using the whites-only facilities. The plaintiffs' attorney, Oscar Adams, sought a summary judgment to desegregate the waiting rooms. His view was that no law compelled the passengers to observe the signs and, so while their arrest was improper, there was no further action to be taken as this was not legally segregated.[7][8] His ruling was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on appeal in 1961.[9]

Lynne heard two cases on school desegregation in Birmingham, Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham Board of Education in 1958 and Armstrong v. Birmingham Board of Education in 1963. In both cases, Birmingham schools officially did not discriminate on school admissions based on race, but implemented an achievement test that resulted in black students being denied admission to all-white schools. Lynne denied the plaintiff's request to overturn the school admission standards because the plaintiffs had not exhausted all of their remedies. After the case was appealed, the Fifth Circuit overruled Lynne and ordered him to issue a ruling to desegregate the schools.[10][11] As an added complication, Lynne, as the Chief Judge, imposed a procedural rule that out-of-state attorneys had to associate with a local law firm in order to argue a case in the court. In one case, a local attorney was pressured to sever his ties with the black lawyers, depriving them of an opportunity to have cases heard in Lynne's Court.[12][13]

In 1963, he ordered Governor George Wallace, who had promised to block the entrance doors of the University of Alabama to prevent black students from registering, to allow Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood to enter the university, ending segregation at that institution. Lynne's ruling emphasized that law and order had to be maintained and that Wallace could not prevent enforcement of the laws.[14][15]

His views on civil rights did change somewhat over time. In Washington v. Lee of 1966, his court overturned racial segregation in prisons, requiring integration of all facilities. His ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1968.

In 1973, Judge Lynne took on senior status and continued to hear cases until 2000. In 1995, the federal courthouse in Decatur, Alabama was renamed in his honor.[14] Lynne died on September 10, 2000 in Birmingham.[14]

[3]

References

1. Thomas McAdory Owen (1920). History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume 4. S. J. Clarke publishing Company. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
2. S Jonathan Bass (2017-05-16). He Calls Me By Lightning: The Life of Caliph Washington and the forgotten Saga of Jim Crow, Southern Justice, and the Death Penalty. Liveright Publishing. ISBN 9781631492389.
3. Seybourn Harris Lynne at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
4. Browder v. Gayle, District Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division, June 19, 1956, retrieved October 29, 2005.
5. Frank Minis Johnson (2001). Defending Constitutional Rights. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820322858. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
6. Cheryl Fisher Phibbs (2009). The Montgomery Bus Boycott: A History and Reference Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313358876. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
7. Jack Walter Peltason (1971). Fifty-eight Lonely Men: Southern Federal Judges and School Desegregation. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
8. "Baldwin v Morgan". Casemine.com. 1958. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
9. "Baldwin v Morgan". casetext.com. 1961. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
10. "Fifty years ago a federal appeals court ordered desegregation of Birmingham schools". Al.com. 2013-07-12.
11. Joseph Bagley (2018). The Politics of White Rights: Race, Justice, and Integrating Alabama's Schools. University of Georgia Press.
12. J. Mills Thornton (2002-09-25). Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817311704.
13. Glenn T. Eskew (1997). But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle. University of North Carolina Press.
14. Martin, Douglas (September 12, 2000). "Seybourn Lynne, 93; Ruled in Civil Rights Case". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-20.
15. "U.S. judge rules Wallace cannot bar Negroes from university". United Press International. 1963-06-05.

External links

• Seybourn Harris Lynne at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.