The Forgotten Face of "Our Federalism"

Abstract

Younger v. Harris is canonical in the field of Federal Courts, distinguished by its seminal role in federal civil rights litigation. The decision’s memorable exposition of “Our Federalism” produced the Younger abstention doctrine, which limits federal courts’ authority to address constitutional violations in state criminal proceedings. Today, this doctrine significantly impacts litigation challenging systemic illegalities in areas like pre-trial detention systems and child welfare programs. Yet, the origins of the case—a stark narrative of racialized surveillance, censorship, and police violence—remain largely unknown.

Through examination of diverse sources—including original interviews, newly acquired FBI files, press coverage, court transcripts, legislative records, memoirs, protest materials, and the archival papers of four Supreme Court justices—this Article reconstructs the case of John Harris, a Black civil rights activist and former SNCC organizer. While Harris’s Mississippi arrests in 1965 are clearly legible as Jim Crow oppression, his subsequent Los Angeles indictment in 1966 for similar activism became harder to recognize as racial persecution because it fell outside the Southern “Jim Crow paradigm.” This differential recognition helped courts maintain their image as champions against Southern injustice while limiting federal intervention elsewhere. Moreover, FBI files reveal extensive federal-state cooperation in suppressing Black political activism, contradicting Younger’s conception of federalism as “separate spheres.”

This case illustrates “legitimacy laundering”—a novel framework to describe the obscuring of canonical influential decisions’ original context and implications, conferring legitimacy on otherwise questionable legal practices. The Article also reveals how some modern courts have expanded Younger abstention beyond its carefully negotiated scope, undermining the doctrine’s origins in preserving federal courts’ power to prevent irreparable harm.