The Basic Issue

All week Adam Clayton Powell kept New York in an uproar over whether he would return to Harlem from his Bimini exile on Palm Sunday. In the end, he disappointed his followers by deciding to tarry a while in his island sanctuary.

Powell's no-show was prompted by prudence; there was a warrant out for his arrest. With a citation for criminal contempt still hanging over him, he appealed for immunity from arrest on Sundays, was turned down 4 to 1 by the judges of the New York Appellate Division. "Surely," the court ruled, "one who disobeys an order during six days of the week is not entitled to an advis ory opinion that he may safely ignore it on the seventh." Had Powell come to New" York and got himself arrested, there was a strong possibility that Harlem would have erupted in rioting--and that would hardly have enhanced his already slim chances of reinstatement in the 90th Congress.

Second Bounce. As far as the April 11 special election for Powell's House seat was concerned, his absence hardly mattered. Even against the well-known James Meredith, he was the prohibitive favorite. Then suddenly last week, Meredith, under intense pressure from Negro leaders, pulled out of the race, and the competition became weaker. Powell's new Republican opponent is Mrs. Lucille Pickett Williams, 50, an attractive grandmother who has no illusions about her chances.

With Powell's re-election a foregone conclusion, the focus shifts back to the basic issue: What will Congress and the courts do next about his exclusion from the House? When he turns up on Capitol Hill with a new certificate of election, no one knows for certain how the House will react--although it has already voted by more than a two-thirds majority to exclude him from the 90th Congress, which lasts until the end of 1968. Certainly, Powell's recent antics have done nothing to increase his popularity among his former colleagues. Last week some 150 Congressmen signed a petition to the Justice Department requesting a prompt investigation of Powell's misuse of Government funds.

Good Case? In the courts, a clear-cut question remains to be answered: Does Congress have the right to establish and judge the qualifications of members-elect, or is it limited to the three criteria mentioned in the Constitution--age, citizenship and state residence? In the past, the House has excluded members on a variety of grounds without interference from the courts. But now that Powell has brought suit to regain his seat, a clash between the judicial and legislative branches may be imminent. On the Hill, many Congressmen argue that the judiciary has no right to intervene in internal congressional affairs. Thus New York Attorney Bruce Bromley, who was retained last week to represent the House, was under instructions to limit his argument to the question of the court's jurisdiction rather than the merits of Powell's case. If the court disa grees, the House may simply ignore it.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel Celler, who only last month said that Powell had a "good case" and should "go to court right away," now hopes that the issue can be ducked altogether. "The court," he said, "should never be placed in the position where its decree cannot be enforced."

But the issue of who may serve in a democracy's legislature is a basic one, and this may be as good a time as any for the courts to undertake a definitive examination of its constitutional ramifications.

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