Statement by the President on Compliance With Final Orders of the Courts.

BECAUSE THERE ARE still some phases of this case pending in the courts, it would not be appropriate for me to express my view on the case itself.

This case, however, or any person's agreement or disagreement with its outcome, must not be confused with the solemn duty that all Americans have to comply with the final orders of the court. Nor should we lose sight of the fact that the maintenance of order to permit compliance with the final orders of the court is the responsibility of each state. Each state owes to its inhabitants, to its sister states and to the Union the obligation to suppress unlawful forces. It cannot by action or deliberate failure to act permit violence to frustrate the preservation of individual rights as determined by a court decree. It is my hope that each state will fulfill its obligation with a full realization of the gravity of any other course.

Defiance of this duty would present the most serious problem, but there can be no equivocation as to the responsibility of the federal government in such an event. My feelings are exactly as they were a year ago. As I said then:

"The very basis of our individual rights and freedoms rests upon the certainty that the President and the Executive Branch of Government will support and insure the carrying out of the decisions of the Federal Courts."

Every American must understand that if an individual, community or state is going successfully and continuously to defy the courts, then there is anarchy.

I continue to insist that the common sense of the individual and his feeling of civic responsibility must eventually come into play if we are to solve this problem.