In 1803, the decision in Marbury v Madison held that the Supreme Court had the ability to practice the process of judicial review. With this ruling, the Court gave itself the power to deem legislation constitutional or unconstitutional. With this bolstered power, the Supreme Court made numerous landmark decisions throughout the 19th and during the first half of the 20th centuries. The Supreme Court’s power of judicial review played an integral role in shaping post-bellum racial laws and attitudes. In the cases of Plessey v. Ferguson and Brown v. The Board of Education the Supreme Court invoked judicial review to assess racial segregation policies as they related to the 14th Amendment. Both Plessey and Brown are landmark cases because they reflected the social climate of their respective time periods, because both cases had immediate impact upon civil rights law and everyday life in America, and because both cases affected basic interpretation of the Constitution. In 1896, the case Plessey v. Ferguson was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Homer Plessey, a black resident of the City of New Orleans, had asserted that the Louisiana law requiring the racial segregation of train cars violated Section of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which states, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” In issuing its opinion, the Supreme Court held that the Louisiana law was, in fact, constitutional. Justice Henry Brown Billingsley’s writing for the majority opined, “While we think the enforced separation of the races, as applied to the internal commerce of the state, neither abridges the privileges or immun... ... middle of paper ... ... Caselaw. Westlaw. Web. Newton, Jim. Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made. New York: Riverhead, 2006. Print. Powe, L. A. Scott. The Warren Court and American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2000. Print. Warren, Earl. "Supreme Court Decision- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Et Al." Caselaw. Westlaw, 17 May 1954. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. Works Cited Billingsley, John B. "Plessy v. Ferguson." Caselaw. Westlaw. Web. Harlan, John M. “Plessy v. Ferguson Dissent” Caselaw. Westlaw. Web. Newton, Jim. Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made. New York: Riverhead, 2006. Print. Powe, L. A. Scott. The Warren Court and American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2000. Print. Warren, Earl. "Supreme Court Decision- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Et Al." Caselaw. Westlaw, 17 May 1954. Web. 7 Nov. 2010.
The court case of Marbury v. Madison (1803) is credited and widely believed to be the creator of the “unprecedented” concept of Judicial Review. John Marshall, the Supreme Court Justice at the time, is lionized as a pioneer of Constitutional justice, but, in the past, was never really recognized as so. What needs to be clarified is that nothing in history is truly unprecedented, and Marbury v. Madison’s modern glorification is merely a product of years of disagreements on the validity of judicial review, fueled by court cases like Eakin v. Raub; John Marshall was also never really recognized in the past as the creator of judicial review, as shown in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford.
In 1896, the Supreme Court was introduced with a case that not only tested both levels of government, state and federal, but also helped further establish a precedent that it was built off of. This court case is commonly known as the case that confirmed the doctrine “separate but equal”. This doctrine is a crucial part of our Constitution and more importantly, our history. This court case involved the analysis of amendments, laws, and divisions of power. Plessy v. Ferguson was a significant court case in U.S history because it was shaped by federalism and precedent, which were two key components that were further established and clarified as a result of the Supreme Court’s final decision.
Holton, Woody. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.
Board of Education was a United States Supreme Court case in 1954 that the court declared state laws to establish separate public schools for black segregated public schools to be unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children that access was denied to Topeka’s none colored schools. Brown claimed that Topeka 's racial segregation violated the Constitution 's Equal Protection Clause because, the city 's black and white schools were not equal to each other. However, the court dismissed and claimed and clarified that segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine. After hearing what the court had said to Brown he decided to appeal the Supreme Court. When Chief Justice Earl Warren stepped in the court spoke in an unanimous decision written by Warren himself stating that, racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Also congress noticed that the Amendment did not prohibit integration and that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal education to both black and white students. Since the supreme court noticed this issue they had to focus on racial equality and galvanized and developed civil
The court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson created nationwide controversy in the United States due to the fact that its outcome would ultimately affect every citizen of our country. On Tuesday, June 7th, 1892, Mr. Homer Plessy purchased a first class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad for a trip from New Orleans to Covington. He then entered a passenger car and took a vacant seat in a coach where white passengers were also sitting. There was another coach assigned to people who weren’t of the white race, but this railroad was a common carrier and was not authorized to discriminate passengers based off of their race. (“Plessy vs. Ferguson, syllabus”).Mr. Plessy was a “Creole of Color”, a person who traces their heritage back to some of the Caribbean, French, and Spanish who settled into Louisiana before it was part of the US (“The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow”). Even though Plessy was only one eighth African American, and could pass for a full white man, still he was threatened to be penalized and ejected from the train if he did not vacate to the non-white coach (“Plessy vs. Ferguson, syllabus). In ...
"The Massachusetts Constitution, Judicial Review and Slavery." Supreme Judaical Court. 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
The Brown decision has generated numerous writings that are used to understand the meaning of the decision; Brown v. Board of Education,
Board of Education of Topeka and as he finish concluding his statements Marshall was all set to demonstrate his part of the case. Justice Frankfurter, as a Jew, did not wish to be the point man on such a controversial race-related decision. Marshall, while struggling to present the most persuasive legal case, seemed unaware of the internal controversy within the Supreme Court. Therefore, the decision against or in favor for the court 's decision in Brown v. Board of Education would either affirm or outlaw the segregated schools that existed across the country. Even then they affirm to remove the trail for another year, and during the year only with the death of one chief justice and the naming of Governor Warren as his successor, Brown was able to establish a new chance to comfort new hopes. However, on May 17, 1954 one of the chief justice stated “Separate education facilities are inherited unequal”, Marshalls with great gratitude remain calm, but with such face expression he celebrated the glory of having both color and white children remain equal. Lastly, the Court ruled unanimously that segregated schools were unconstitutional, and established Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, a landmark of the United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws to establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be
Foner, Eric. "Chapter 9." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Brief Third ed. Vol. One. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. N. pag. Print.
Garrow, David J. “Looking Back at Brown: 3 Books Reflect on the 1954 Supreme Court
Walker, Samuel. In Defense of American Liberties: a History of the ACLU. New York. Oxford
The request for an injunction pushed the court to make a difficult decision. On one hand, the judges agreed with the Browns; saying that: “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children...A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn” (The National Center For Public Research). On the other hand, the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson allowed separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites, and no Supreme Court ruling had overturned Plessy yet. Be...
... Brown v. Board of Education. n.d. 8 May 2014 http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm>. History:
Newmyer, R. Kent. John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court. Baton Rouge:
Labunski, Richard. James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.