WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 1962 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court today refused to review the court order which forced the admission of James H. Meredith to the University of Mississippi. It also upheld two lower court decisions which struck down racial barriers in bus and railroad terminals in Louisiana and Georgia.
The Supreme Court also:
Agreed to examine cases dealing with Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Refused to review a ruling of the Oregon Supreme Court which barred distribution of textbooks at public expense to parochial schools in Oregon.
The court's action in the Mississippi case had been anticipated. Justice Hugo L. Black early last month vacated several stays granted by Fifth Circuit Judge Ben F. Cameron. Black, after consulting with the other justices, said the lower court orders to admit Meredith should be carried out.
The suits in Georgia and Louisiana stemmed from new regulations established by the Interstate Commerce Commission as an aftermath of the "freedom rider" campaign last November.
The rules prohibited interstate bus and railroad companies to use the facilities of any terminal where waiting room, rest room, eating, drinking or ticket-sales facilities are segregated.
Racial discrimination already was barred under the Interstate Commerce Act. But Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy requested the new rules on the ground that segregation could not be effectively broken down through suits by individual Negroes who suffered discrimination.
The appeal on recitation of the Lord's Prayer as part of opening exercises was brought by Mrs. Madalyn E. Murray of Baltimore, who described herself and her son, William J. Murray III, as atheists.
The case on Bible reading was started in Philadelphia by a Unitarian couple, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lewis Schempp. Their children attend a high school in Abington Twp., Pa.
In the Oregon case, the 1941 statute which allowed distribution of textbooks was found to violate the state constitution by the Oregon Supreme Court in a 6 to 1 ruling on Nov. 15, 1961.
Today's brief order rejected a petition for review by Ivan B. Carlson, father of five children who attend St. John the Apostle School in Oregon City.
The state court had rejected the "child benefit theory" which asserts that the expenditure was solely to meet the needs of the pupils, rather than to aid the schools.
