William O. Douglas

“ Pullman from the start seemed to have some qualities of a legal research luxury. As I said in Clay v. Sun Ins. Office, 363 U.S. 207, 228, 80 S.Ct. 1222, 1234, 4 L.Ed.2d 1170 (dissenting opinion) :
'Some litigants have long purses. Many, however, can hardly afford one lawsuit, let alone two. Shuttling the parties between state and federal tribunals is a sure way of defeating the ends of justice. The pursuit of justice is not an academic exercise. There are no foundations to finance the resolution of nice state law questions involved in federal court litigation. ”

“ The Pullman case, decided a little over 20 years ago, launched an experiment in the management of federal-state relations that has inappropriately been called the 'abstention doctrine.' There are numerous occasions when a federal court abstains, dismissing an action or declining to entertain it because a state tribunal is a more appropriate one for resolving the controversy. A bankruptcy court commonly sends its trustee into state courts to have complex questions of local law adjudicated. ”

“ That litigation more often than not entails construction of state statutes, city ordinances, state court decisions, rulings of state administrative commissions, and the like. Under the Pullman doctrine a Negro who starts in the federal court soon finds himself in the state court and his journey there may be not only weary and expensive but also long and drawn out. ”

“ Yet under the rule we announce today, those values promise to be lost in important areas of civil rights.
I mention the time element as one of the evils spun by the Pullman doctrine. Time has a particularly noxious effect on explosive civil rights questions, where the problem only festers as grievances pile high and the law takes its slow, expensive pace to decide in years what should be decided promptly. ”

“ After today's decision, application of the Pullman doctrine to the field of civil rights, particularly to controversies involving the rights of Negroes, will have, I think, serious effects. Harrison v. NAACP, 360 U.S. 167, 79 S.Ct. 1025, 3 L.Ed.2d 1152, and NAACP v. Button, supra, are harbingers of things to come. The complaint in those cases was filed November 28, 1956, and our decision on the merits was not announced until January 14, 1963. In other words, nearly seven years elapsed between the institution of the litigation and an adjudication on the merits. ”

“ The Court recognizes the value to the litigants of being in the federal court. As it says, 'the benefit of a federal trial court's role in constructing a record and making fact findings' is considerable. Ante, at p. 416. A litigant trapped in state court proceedings may find himself veritably encased by findings of fact which no appellate court may disturb. The value of the independence of federal judges, and the value of an escape from local prejudices when fact findings are made are considerable ones. ”

“ Indeed it will be prudent to do so in light of Government and Civic Employees Organizing Committee, C.I.O. v. Windsor, supra, where we ruled, 'The bare adjudication by the Alabama Supreme Court that the union is subject to this Act does not suffice, since that court was not asked to interpret the statute in light of the constitutional objections presented to the District Court.' 353 U.S., at 366, 77 S.Ct., at 839, 1 L.Ed.2d 894. ”