Proposed plan offered by board of control to Negro law student whereby board would provide legal education at an acceptable college or university in another state equal to courses offered at any tax supported school in Florida did not comply with mandatory requirement of Fourteenth Amendment that equal protection of the law be accorded to every citizen. U.S.C.A.Const. Amend. 14.
The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States from which we have quoted is binding upon this court in respect to the Federal constitutional question therein decided. Accordingly, it must be held, on authority of the case, that the plan offered by the Board of Control for giving the relator out- of-state schooling as an only means of affording him a legal education, while law school training is provided within the state for white students, does not comply with the mandatory provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which require that equal protection of the law shall be accorded to every citizen.
The alternative plan provided by the Board of Control for the legal education of the relator at a law school within the state presents quite a different situation. As appears from the answer filed by the respondents, the allegations whereof are admitted to be true under the state of the pleadings, the Board of Control, since the institution of the suit, has established a school of law at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, located at Tallahassee. The Board is ready to admit the relator to this law school, provided he makes his application within the time allowed for members of any other group to apply for admission to a course in law at any other tax- supported law school in Florida. At the newly created law school for Negroes, courses of study will be provided for the relator on a basis and under conditions equal to those at any tax-supported institution of higher learning for white students in the State, as soon as these courses can be actually and physically set up and placed in operation. If at the time of his enrollment the Board has been unable to have a course in law physically functioning and in actual operation at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, the relator will be given instruction temporarily at the state institution of higher learning for white students which offers a law course. Upon graduating and receiving his degree in law from the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, the relator will be entitled to all benefits and privileges accorded to graduates of any other tax-supported law school in the State of Florida.