The Courts: The Pickrick Capers

The most vociferously disputed part of the new federal Civil Rights Act concerns the public accommodations title. It is based on the Constitution's commerce clause and says, in effect, that any public place of business that relates in any way to interstate commerce may not discriminate against Negroes. Last week the public accommodations title got its first major test in a federal court, and it passed handsomely.

The argument was heard before a three-judge panel in Atlanta, where Government attorneys sought injunctions against two local establishments, the Heart of Atlanta Motel, and the Pickrick restaurant, a fried-chicken emporium. It was...

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