Case: Baines v. City of Danville, VA

From Bruce Baines v. City of Damville, Virginia, 337 F.2d 579 (4th Cir. 1964):

No. 9084 and No. 9150, Chase v. Aiken, No. 9081 and No. 9149, Chase v. McCain, and No. 9212, Page v. McCain, are appeals in plenary actions filed by Negro plaintiffs in the District Court, in which they seek injunctions against their prosecution in the state court upon charges of violations of a state court injunction, of an ordinance limiting the number of participants in demonstrations and picketing activity, and the time and manner in which such activities could be conducted, and of another ordinance preventing parades without a permit. The requests for injunctive relief are based upon allegations that the state court injunction and the ordinances are unconstitutional and invalid. The complaints also request declaratory judgments that the injunction and the ordinances are unconstitutional. The District Judge did not reach the merits, because he concluded that, under the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. § 2283 and the principles of comity, he should not undertake to enjoin pending criminal proceedings in the state court.

3

No. 9080, Baines v. City of Danville, and No. 9082, McGhee v. City of Danville, are appeals from orders remanding to the state courts some 105 criminal cases which the defendants had undertaken to remove from the state court to the District Court. There are also petitions for writs of mandmus directed to the District Judge, which seek to present the same question of the propriety of the orders of remand as are tendered by the appeals.

4

No. 9083, Lewis, et al. v. Bennett, is an appeal from a denial of a temporary restraining order directed to the Virginia Employment Commission preventing it from disqualifying applicants for, or recipients of, unemployment compensation upon the ground that the pendency of criminal charges against them made them unavailable for work within the meaning of the unemployment compensation statute.