if equal, did not violate the constitution. segregation was not discrimination.
decision
7 justices
VERSUS
1 justice
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark decision of the u.s. supreme court. a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
constitutional application
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL IS THE LAW OF THE LAND
Homer Plessy was considered 1/8th black, therefore he had to sit in the side of the train that black people sat in, of course Plessy refused, this turned into a major case called...
arguments for the petitioner
the court decided that racially separate faculties, if equal, did not violate the constitution. segregation, court said , was not discrimination
arguments for the respondent
seven-to-one majority (one justice did not participate),advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws.
significance
PLESSY V FERGUSON:i prevented challenges to racial segregation!!!
the separate but equal: law of the land.
Ferguson, at the Louisiana Supreme Court, arguing that the segregation law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment,as well as the 13th amendment that prohibited slavery.
what about the 13th and 14th amendments!!!
The Court held that the state law was constitutional. In an opinion authored by Justice Henry Billings Brown, the majority upheld state-imposed racial segregation.
Plessy v. Ferguson was important because it essentially established the constitutionality of racial segregation. As a controlling legal precedent, it prevented constitutional challenges to racial segregation for more than half a century until it was finally overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.