Supreme Court Cases: Plessy V. 14th Amendment
Plessy v. Ferguson
14th amendment- equal protection
Argued 1896, Decided-1896
Louisiana placed a law giving separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Plessy- 7/8 Caucasian, sat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train, and refused to move to the car for blacks and was then arrested. The Court had to decide whether the Louisiana law was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment. The Court ruled that the state law was within its constitutional boundaries. The majority of this case supported the state-imposed racial segregation. The Court based their final decision on the separate but equal doctrine and agreed that the state had separate facilities for blacks and whites, which were equal. Brown stated that the 14th amendment was imposed to provide complete equality of races before the law. In …show more content…
Attorney General rejected it because the plan created only one black-majority district. NC then gave a second plan making two black-majority districts, one of which was no wider than the interstate road along with it stretched. Five residents of NC challenged the constitutionality of this shaped district, saying that its only point was to secure the election of additional black representatives. The District Court (3judges) held that they failed to state a constitutional claim, the residents of NC then appealed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari. Did the North Carolina residents' claim, that the State created a racially gerrymandered district, raise a valid constitutional issue under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause? Yes, the Court ruled that even though NC's reapportionment plan was racially neutral on its face, the resultant district shape was unusual enough to say that it made an effort to separate voters into districts based on race. The Court stated that the District Court would have to decide whether or not some convincing governmental interest justified NC's
14th amendment- equal protection
Argued 1896, Decided-1896
Louisiana placed a law giving separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Plessy- 7/8 Caucasian, sat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train, and refused to move to the car for blacks and was then arrested. The Court had to decide whether the Louisiana law was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment. The Court ruled that the state law was within its constitutional boundaries. The majority of this case supported the state-imposed racial segregation. The Court based their final decision on the separate but equal doctrine and agreed that the state had separate facilities for blacks and whites, which were equal. Brown stated that the 14th amendment was imposed to provide complete equality of races before the law. In …show more content…
Attorney General rejected it because the plan created only one black-majority district. NC then gave a second plan making two black-majority districts, one of which was no wider than the interstate road along with it stretched. Five residents of NC challenged the constitutionality of this shaped district, saying that its only point was to secure the election of additional black representatives. The District Court (3judges) held that they failed to state a constitutional claim, the residents of NC then appealed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari. Did the North Carolina residents' claim, that the State created a racially gerrymandered district, raise a valid constitutional issue under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause? Yes, the Court ruled that even though NC's reapportionment plan was racially neutral on its face, the resultant district shape was unusual enough to say that it made an effort to separate voters into districts based on race. The Court stated that the District Court would have to decide whether or not some convincing governmental interest justified NC's