Nicholas Tovar
Mrs. Holt
Legal Systems
02 October 2017
Unit 1 Essay: Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v. Board of Education
The landmark power known as judicial review has had many lasting effects on laws known as precedents, from permitting the separation of two races to requiring that all defendants receive attorneys. Precedents regard racial segregation are the basis of what the cases Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education established when viewed as two components of one story. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the “separate, but equal” doctrine allowing African Americans and white Americans to stay separate. Brown v. Board of …show more content…
An article written by Alex McBride of PBS.org expresses how,“the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Louisiana law passed in 1890 ‘providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races.’” Due to the fact that slavery was abolished fairly recently(about 25 years before the law was passed) it would make sense for people, especially in the south, to still harbor discriminatory opinions on people of African descent, this tension lead to the creation of this law and the conflict between Plessy and Ferguson. While on the topic of race and segregation, Mr. McBride also reported how before the case Brown v. BoE,“large portions of the United States had racially segregated schools, made legal by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that segregated public facilities were constitutional so long as the black and white facilities were equal to each other,” in a different article for PBS.org. Considering that such a large portion of the United States allowed racially segregated schools as a result of the P v. F case, it is made painfully clear how direct the connection is between the cases when comparing them based on the topic they cover. Although the P v. F case was originally a standalone case about an African American man sitting in a white-only car, it created a doctrine that claimed all aspects of life were deemed equal so long as the …show more content…
The former ruling belongs to Plessy v. Ferguson as illustrated by www.streetlaw.org, which mentioned how, “the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ferguson. The majority rejected Plessy’s Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment arguments, instead putting its stamp of approval on the doctrine of ‘separate but equal.’” In the Supreme Court’s assessment of the case, there was nothing wrong with the isolation of different races, as long as they have access to the same level of privileges, in fact they believed that changing the law wouldn't affect the people’s discrimination. On the other hand, the judges in Brown v. Board of Education all supported the overturning and prohibition of the segregation, this is explained by www.streetlaw.org once again, declaring that,“In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown. The Court found the practice of segregation unconstitutional and refused to apply its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson to ‘the field of public education.’” The verdict in B v. BoE was basically a counter argument in response to P v. F; the decision was based on the idea that the decision in P v. F was unconstitutional and should have been resolved. These two landmark cases are attached through their verdicts as well as their topics, however a case can't only be looked at based on the majority opinion, one must view both sides to get a complete
Mrs. Holt
Legal Systems
02 October 2017
Unit 1 Essay: Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v. Board of Education
The landmark power known as judicial review has had many lasting effects on laws known as precedents, from permitting the separation of two races to requiring that all defendants receive attorneys. Precedents regard racial segregation are the basis of what the cases Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education established when viewed as two components of one story. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the “separate, but equal” doctrine allowing African Americans and white Americans to stay separate. Brown v. Board of …show more content…
An article written by Alex McBride of PBS.org expresses how,“the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Louisiana law passed in 1890 ‘providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races.’” Due to the fact that slavery was abolished fairly recently(about 25 years before the law was passed) it would make sense for people, especially in the south, to still harbor discriminatory opinions on people of African descent, this tension lead to the creation of this law and the conflict between Plessy and Ferguson. While on the topic of race and segregation, Mr. McBride also reported how before the case Brown v. BoE,“large portions of the United States had racially segregated schools, made legal by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which held that segregated public facilities were constitutional so long as the black and white facilities were equal to each other,” in a different article for PBS.org. Considering that such a large portion of the United States allowed racially segregated schools as a result of the P v. F case, it is made painfully clear how direct the connection is between the cases when comparing them based on the topic they cover. Although the P v. F case was originally a standalone case about an African American man sitting in a white-only car, it created a doctrine that claimed all aspects of life were deemed equal so long as the …show more content…
The former ruling belongs to Plessy v. Ferguson as illustrated by www.streetlaw.org, which mentioned how, “the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ferguson. The majority rejected Plessy’s Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment arguments, instead putting its stamp of approval on the doctrine of ‘separate but equal.’” In the Supreme Court’s assessment of the case, there was nothing wrong with the isolation of different races, as long as they have access to the same level of privileges, in fact they believed that changing the law wouldn't affect the people’s discrimination. On the other hand, the judges in Brown v. Board of Education all supported the overturning and prohibition of the segregation, this is explained by www.streetlaw.org once again, declaring that,“In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown. The Court found the practice of segregation unconstitutional and refused to apply its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson to ‘the field of public education.’” The verdict in B v. BoE was basically a counter argument in response to P v. F; the decision was based on the idea that the decision in P v. F was unconstitutional and should have been resolved. These two landmark cases are attached through their verdicts as well as their topics, however a case can't only be looked at based on the majority opinion, one must view both sides to get a complete