1841
United States v. Schooner Amistad
Holding that slaves who took control of the slave ship they were on were not criminals because they had been unlawfully kidnapped onto the ship.
1841
Holding that slaves who took control of the slave ship they were on were not criminals because they had been unlawfully kidnapped onto the ship.
1856
Holding that black people were not citizens and could not enjoy the rights and privileges of citizenship.
1883
Holding that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not give Congress the power to outlaw private racial discrimination.
1886
Holding that a law that is not discriminatory on its face but is administered in a discriminatory way violates the Equal Protection Clause.
1896
Upholding segregated facilities if they are “separate but equal.”
1938
Holding that if a state provides a school for white students, it must also provide one for black students.
1944
Holding that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt could put Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II.
1946
Holding that segregation on buses that cross state lines violated the Interstate Commerce Clause.
1948
Holding that racially discriminatory housing contracts cannot be enforced.
1950
Holding that if separated school facilities were not in fact equal, the school had to let black students use the white facilities.
1953
Holding that whites-only primary elections were unconstitutional.
1954
Holding that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
1965
Holding that Congress had the power to prohibit most private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race.
1967
Holding that laws banning interracial marriage violated the Equal Protection Clause.
1971
Creating the disparate impact theory.
1976
Holding that laws with discriminatory effects do not violate the Constitution unless adopted with a racially discriminatory motive.
1977
Creating a test to determine whether a law had a discriminatory motive.
1978
Holding that universities can use racial preferences in admissions.
1979
Holding that private employers may sometimes use racial preferences in hiring.
1980
Holding that Congress can spend money in a racially discriminatory way to remedy past racial discrimination.
1986
Holding that societal discrimination is too vague a basis for racially discriminatory remedial programs.
1989
Holding that discriminatory remedial programs are permissible only when the government identifies a specific instance of discrimination in which it had participated.
1995
Holding that racial preferences are subject to the strictest form of judicial scrutiny.
2003
Holding that universities may use racial preferences in admissions to achieve “the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body.”
2003
Holding that a points-based admissions system that automatically favored all people of certain races was unconstitutional because it did not examine the “diversity contributions” of each applicant.
2023
Holding that universities may no longer use racial preferences in admissions.