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Plessy V. Ferguson Case Summary

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Case Brief - Plessy v. Ferguson Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson was a US Supreme Court case between Homer Plessy, the plaintiff, and John Ferguson, the defendant. The year this case took was place was 18961. This case almost entirely deals with the Louisiana Law passed six years prior that provided “equal but separate” railway carriages for white and colored races. The constitutionality of this law was brought into this case as Homer Plessy, who refused to sit in the colored only rail car, argued it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This clause states that “All persons born in or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It then goes on to state that States are not allowed to make or enforce any law that takes away life, liberty, property, privileges, or immunities of US citizens without due process of law. The most important part of the clause though that is the most relevant is the final sentence which states “...nor deny to any person …show more content…

Plessy also tried to argue that the thirteenth amendment, which banned slavery, was also infringed upon in this case, but that notion was quickly dismissed by the court as the amendment only applied to the act of slavery itself. In Mr. Justice Brown’s opinion of the court, he specifically cites the court case of State v. Gibson as “technically interfering with the freedom of contract” due to its forbidding of interracial marriage, but the laws banning such a marriage have been recognized within the police power of the state. State

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