Nicky Gagliardo

Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
Facts:
The state of Louisiana enacted a law that required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892 Homer Adolph Plessy, a seven-eighths Caucasian, took a seat in the “whites only” car on a Louisiana train. When he was told to move to the “blacks” cars, he refused and was shortly afterwards arrested on Louisiana’s statute that provided for segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations.
With John H. Ferguson presiding, Plessy was trialed on the grounds of if the states could exercise their police powers based upon custom, religion, or race. Plessy filed a petition for writs of prohibition and certiorari in the Supreme Court of Louisiana against Ferguson asserting that segregation “stamps” blacks with a badge of inferiority in violation of the Thirteenth amendment.
Issues:
Can the states constitutionally enact legislation that requires people of different races to use “separate but equal” segregated facilities? Did this Louisiana law violate the thirteenth or even the fourteenth amendment?
Decision:
The states can constitutionally enact legislation that requires different races to obey the “separate but equal” segregated facilities. The Supreme Court could not overrule it because the Constitution gave states the right to make and exercise their own laws that the citizens must obey.
Reasoning:
John H. Ferguson knew that if he were to rule in favor of Plessy then the little power that the states have would be