Facts—The collector of the port of San Francisco denied admission into the United States to Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese person who had been born in California and was returning from a temporary visit to China. His parents were subjects of the emperor of China, but had a permanent domicile and residence in the United …
United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649; 18 S. Ct. 456; 42 L. Ed. 890 (1898) Read More »
Facts—Grutter, a white Michigan resident who had applied to and been rejected by the law school at the University of Michigan, argued that the school had discriminated against her on the basis of race in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and federal statutes. The District Court struck down the school’s use of race, but the …
Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306; 123 S. Ct. 2235; 156 L. Ed. 2d 304 (2003) Read More »
Facts—In 1977 Congress passed the Public Works Employment Act, which provides that “at least 10 percent of federal funds for local public works projects must be used by the state or local grantee to procure services or supplies from businesses owned by minority group members, defined as United States citizens,” who are Blacks, Spanish-speaking, Orientals, …
Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U.S. 448; 100 S. Ct. 2758; 65 L. Ed. 2d 902 (1980) Read More »
Facts—In 1974 the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation (Kaiser) entered into a master collective bargaining agreement covering terms and conditions of employment. It included an affirmative action plan designed to eliminate racial imbalances in Kaiser’s then almost exclusively white craftwork forces by reserving for black employees 50 percent …
Facts—Allan Bakke, a white male, twice applied (1973–1974) to the Medical School of the University of California at Davis. Despite strong “bench marks” (interviewers’ summaries, overall grade point average, science courses grade point, MCAT scores, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and other biographical data), he was rejected. Davis had two admissions programs for its entering …
Facts—Both the federal District Court and the Court of Appeals had held that inter-district busing was needed to bring about the desegregation of the Detroit city and adjacent or nearby school districts, specially to Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. Question—Does the equal protection clause require busing between independent school districts to bring about desegregation? Decision—No. …
Milliken v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717; 94 S. Ct. 3112; 41 L. Ed. 2d 1069 (1974) Read More »
Facts—The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system encompasses the city of Charlotte and surrounding Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Two-thirds of the African American students in the system attended schools that were either totally black or more than 99 percent black. The federal District Court ordered the school authorities to carry out a plan for desegregation of the schools …
Facts—Jones claimed that the Mayer Company refused to sell him a house in a particular section of St. Louis County solely because he was African American. A federal statute that Congress enacted in 1866 under its power to enforce the Thirteenth Amendment places all citizens on the same level as white citizens to receive, hold, …
Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., 392 U.S. 409; 88 S. Ct. 2186; 20 L. Ed. 2d 1189 (1968) Read More »
Facts—Two residents of Virginia, a black woman and a white man, Richard Loving, were married in the District of Columbia. They then returned to Caroline County, Virginia, where they were indicted for violation of Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages. The Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld their conviction. The central provision of the state’s …
Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1; 87 S. Ct. 1817; 18 L. Ed. 2d 1010 (1967) Read More »
Facts—After the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court ordered rearguments on how this ruling should be implemented. The U.S. attorney general as well as attorneys general of several states participated in oral arguments. Question—How should the racial desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education be implemented? Decision—The Court …
Brown v. Board of Education II, 349 U.S. 294; 75 S. Ct. 753; 99 L. Ed. 1083 (1955) Read More »
