by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas

“ While the plaintiffs are entitled to a declaratory judgment to the effect that the State of Arkansas cannot constitutionally require that a person be discharged from public employment or be declared ineligible therefor merely because he belongs to the NAACP, from which it necessarily follows that public hiring officials cannot be successfully prosecuted for declining to follow such a standard, it does not follow that this Court, as a court of equity, can compel any school board to hire a person as a teacher, or to retain him in its employment, or to forbid it to discharge him. ”

“ In discharging their annual tasks [3] of selecting new teachers and determining which of the old ones should be retained in employment, Arkansas school boards and college trustees are not concerned alone with the professional training or instructional competency of their employees or applicants for employment, or even with their loyalty to this country. While membership in a subversive organization, such as the Communist Party, is, of course, a relevant factor bearing upon a person's fitness for employment as a school teacher or college instructor, other factors are relevant as well. ”

“ A school board in undertaking to select teachers is entitled to take into consideration not only an applicant's competency and loyalty, but also his or her personality, habits and manner of living, and social, professional, and political background and affiliations, to the end that it may select not only competent teachers, but those whose employment or retention in employment is to the best interest of all concerned. ”

“ A little further on in the opinion, the Court, after announcing that it was adhering to the Garner case, supra, went on to state:
"* * * A teacher works in a sensitive area in a schoolroom. There he shapes the attitude of young minds towards the society in which they live. In this, the state has a vital concern. It must preserve the integrity of the schools. That the school authorities have the right and the duty to screen the officials, teachers, and employees as to their fitness to maintain the integrity of [p357] the schools as a part of ordered society, cannot be doubted. ”

“ By reason of a somewhat peculiar situation that existed with respect to the Little Rock School Board when the suit was filed and on the day of trial, which situation we find it unnecessary to detail, there is some uncertainty with respect to the exact status of Shelton's contract and those of certain other teachers who declined to submit the Act 10 affidavits. It has been stipulated, however, that the Little Rock School Board will act in conformity with ruling State statutes, and it is plain that if those statutes stand, Shelton will inevitably feel their impact if he has not already done so. ”

“ Those teachers usually are hired on a year-to-year basis, and while a wrongful discharge during a school year in breach of contract is actionable, the only specific job security that a teacher has beyond the end of a year is the statutory provision that if a teacher is not notified within 10 days after the end of a school year that his contract has not been renewed, it is automatically renewed for the following year. ”

“ In the Garner case the Court, in upholding a requirement that public employees sign an affidavit revealing whether they had been members of the Communist Party or of the Communist Political Action Association, and if so setting forth the dates and periods of membership, said:
"We think that a municipal employer is not disabled because it is an agency of the State from inquiring of its employees as to matters that may prove relevant to fitness and suitability for the public service. Past conduct may well relate to present fitness ”

“ Even if the recitals of the preamble to the statute to the effect that the NAACP is devoted to the creation of racial unrest and turmoil are taken at face value, there is no declaration that the purposes and activities of the organization are designed to overthrow the government or that they are violative of any statute. ”

“ While public employing agencies have a wide if not unlimited discretion in selecting their employees, it does not follow that the Legislature can by statute require such agencies to apply a wholly arbitrary and discriminatory standard in hiring and firing. ”

“ Reduced to essentials, the claim of the plaintiffs is that the two statutes in question deprive the plaintiff Shelton and others similarly situated, and the members of ATA of liberty and property without due process of law, that they [p355] deny them the equal protection of the law; that they infringe upon their rights of freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly and association and to petition for redress of grievances, and deny them privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States. ”

“ The Act further provides, among other things, that any contract entered into with any person who has not filed the prescribed affidavit shall be void; that no public moneys shall be paid to such person as compensation for his services ”

“ To thus inhibit individual freedom of movement is to stifle the flow of democratic expression and controversy at one of its chief sources. We hold that the distinction observed between the case at bar and Garner, Adler and Gerende is decisive. ”

“ A public employer has a right to know the organizations to which its employees, including school teachers, belong or have belonged, or to which they are making or have made financial contributions. This right has been recognized in Garner v. ”