Barr v. City of Columbia/Dissent Black

by Hugo Black

United States Supreme Court

378 U.S. 146

Barr  v.  City of Columbia

 Argued: Oct. 14 and 15, 1963. --- Decided: June 22, 1964

Mr. Justice BLACK, with whom Mr. Justice HARLAN and r. Justice WHITE join, dissenting from the reversal of the trespass convictions.

We have stated in our opinions in Bouie v. City of Columbia, 377 U.S. 363, 84 S.Ct. 1708, and Bell v. Maryland, 377 U.S. 318, 84 S.Ct. 1864, our belief that the mere fact that police responded to the call of a storekeeper and arrested people who were remaining in the store over his protest was not enough to constitute 'state action' within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. A review of the evidence in the case before us convinces us that the officers here did nothing which would justify a holding that they were acting for the State in any capacity except to arrest people who violated the trespass statute by remaining on the property of another after having been asked to leave. Petitioners' other objections relating to vagueness of the trespass statute and alleged absence of evidence to support the trespass convictions are identical to those which we considered and rejected in our opinion in Bouie. We believe therefore that the trespass convictions should stand.

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