Supreme Court and Segregation
The Supreme Court's stance on segregation is an interesting study on how the Court comes to a conclusion that is later questioned. Have a research paper custom written on the Court's ruling on segregation and the US Constitution's interpretation of equality.
When the US Supreme Court was presented with the question of whether racial segregation on trains in Louisiana infringed upon the rights of one man, Mr. Plessy, they took into account the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Eventually, they arrived at the decision that Louisiana's law mandating racial segregation was indeed legal and within constitutional boundaries. Although Americans have come to know this case by "separate but equal," this wording was not contained within the opinion of the justices, although they did believe that facilities that were separate for whites and blacks was Constitutional so long as the facilities were, indeed, equal.
When it was written in the 14th Amendment that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," this Amendment , as part of the Bill of Rights, was meant to include all peoples.
Believing that under Louisiana law blacks were not deprived of life, liberty or property, the Supreme Court rules in favor of Louisiana law. Further, the Court believed that Plessy had been served with the due process of the law as his case had been heard up to the Supreme Court. Lastly, Plessy was still protected within the laws, no differently than whites in Louisiana, the Court believed. Thus, they were able to make a ruling that stated (in paraphrase) the following:
- Segregation was legal as long as the segregated facilities were separate yet equal.
- Segregation and separation did not mean one facility or the other was defunct,
- This is how the Supreme Court could justify its "separate but equal" ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson.