Pointing out that the Department of Justice is charged with enforcing the Civil Rights Law, the American Jewish Congress today urged the Department to file amicus curiae (friends of the court) briefs in two restrictive ##nant cases now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark, the Congress called on the Department of Justice to bring its influence to bear on the struggle to outlaw racially restrictive covenants. The letter, signed by Rabbi Irving Miller, cited President Truman’s declaration of June 29, 1947, that “the extension of civil rights today means not protection of the people against the government, but protection of the people by the government.”
The two cases before the United States Supreme Court, one in Missouri and the other in Michigan, result from injunctions upheld by the respective State Supreme Courts restraining white men from selling property to Negroes because the homes invalved were subject to private covenants barring occupation by Negroes.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
