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.
...his seemingly routine case of fornication and premarital pregnancy proved to be significant for early American legal history. The unfolding of this story and the legal changes that it brought about makes evident that by the end of the seventeenth century, The Eastern Shore had shaped a distinct legal culture. The characters involved in each case also revealed the extent the powerful players were able to shape the law to their own self-interests. The goal of the powers to be was to protect property interests, protect personal reputation and liberty, and to maintain social order.
Labunski, Richard. James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.
Holton, Woody. Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007.
Shnayerson, Robert. The Illustrated History of The Supreme Court Of The United States. New York: Abrams, 1986.
Plessy v. Ferguson was the first major inquiry into the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal-protection clause, which prohibits states from denying equal protection of the laws to any person within their jurisdictions. Although the majority opinion did not contain the phrase separate but equal, it gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and supposedly equal public facilities and services for African Americans and whites. It served as a controlling judicial precedent until it was overturned by the ...
The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law by Charles F. Hobson examines the judicial career of John Marshall, as well as the legal culture that helped to shape his political beliefs and his major constitutional opinions. The author sources much of his information from the formal opinions that Marshall issued during his judicial career. From these writings, Hobson presents Marshall 's views on law and government and provides explanations for what in Marshall 's life influenced those beliefs.
In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision set that “separate” facilities for blacks, and whites was constitutional. With the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Plessy was overturned along with the separate but equal implementation. The Brown v. Board of Education case all started with African American children who were denied acceptance in white schools. In a PBS Article the author discusses how a case was filed against the Topeka Kansas school board by Oliver Brown. Alexander McBride states “Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by representative-plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children denied access to Topeka 's white schools. Brow...
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
Newmyer, R. Kent. John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court. Baton Rouge:
Blasi, V. (1983). The Burger Court: The Couner-Revolution That Wasn't. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Mr Justice Wilson, ‘Lectures on Advocacy and Ethics in the Supreme Court’ (1979) 15 Legal Research Foundation Inc.
Brannen Jr., Daniel E., Richard Clay Hare and Rebeca E. Valentine, Supreme Court Drama: Cases that Changed America. 2 ed. Detroit: V-X-L, 2011, Print,
The National Center For Public Research. “Brown v Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+).” Supreme Court of The United States. 1982 .