Suit to test poll tax laws is promised
Strategy follows high court ruling
Washington (UP) –
Tradition voting procedures in the South, already threatened by a Supreme Court ruling permitting Negro voting in primaries, faced still another threat today in a promised court test on legality of poll taxes as prerequisites to voting.
The new challenge of the poll tax was voiced by Arthur Dunn, New York attorney, in announcing formation of a new organization called Parents and Wives of Fighting Americans.
Suit to be filed
He said a test suit challenging the Virginia poll tax soon will be filed in federal court at Roanoke, Virginia.
He added:
And we’ll take it to the Supreme Court if necessary.
In the light of Monday’s Supreme Court decision that Negroes cannot be excluded from state primary elections, some Southern Senators conceded that they feared a court test more than the forthcoming Senate debate on a House-approved poll tax repealer.
Sees no sense
Senator John H. Overton (D-LA) said:
I don’t see any sense in a poll tax fight in the Senate when the opponents of the poll tax apparently could get the same result in the seclusion and cloister of the Supreme Court.
There was a possibility that the Supreme Court decision will influence Southern Democrats to reject a proposed agreement under which the Southerners would move to invoke the cloture (debate limitation) rule and, if the motion failed, proponents would concede defeat.