8th ELA - 1/13/21

The court claims that the purpose of the 14th Amendment is “to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law” but not “to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either.

The court interprets the 14th Amendment in a way that only guarantees legal equality between blacks and whites, not social equality. This court determined that striking down the Louisiana railroad law would force the races to mix. The court asserts that the forced mixing of the races is not part of the 14th Amendment, and should not be pushed if either one or both races do not approve of such mixing.