Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 65.0

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

17 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

ideal, as Justice Harlan emphasized in dissent: The Recon-
struction Amendments had aimed to remove “the race line 
from our systems of governments.”  Id., at 563.  For Justice 
Harlan,  the  Constitution  was  colorblind  and  categorically
rejected laws designed to protect “a dominant race—a supe-
rior class of citizens,” while imposing a “badge of servitude” 
on others.  Id., at 560–562. 

History  has  vindicated  Justice  Harlan’s  view,  and  this 
Court recently acknowledged that Plessy should have been 
overruled  immediately  because  it  “betrayed  our  commit-
ment  to  ‘equality  before  the  law.’ ”    Dobbs  v.  Jackson 
Women’s  Health  Organization,  597  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2022) 
(slip op., at 44).  Nonetheless, and despite Justice Harlan’s
efforts, the era of state-sanctioned segregation persisted for 
more than a half century. 

E 

Despite  the  extensive  evidence  favoring  the  colorblind 
view, as detailed above, it appears increasingly in vogue to
embrace  an  “antisubordination”  view  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment:  that  the  Amendment  forbids  only  laws  that 
hurt, but not help, blacks.  Such a theory lacks any basis in 
the  original  meaning  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.    Re-
spondents  cite  a  smattering  of  federal  and  state  statutes 
passed during the years surrounding the ratification of the 
Fourteenth Amendment.  And, JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR’s dis-
sent argues that several of these statutes evidence the rat-
ifiers’ understanding that the Equal Protection Clause “per-
mits consideration of race to achieve its goal.”  Post, at 6. 
Upon examination, however, it is clear that these statutes 
are fully consistent with the colorblind view.

Start  with  the  1865  Freedmen’s  Bureau  Act.    That  Act 
established  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  to  issue  “provisions, 
clothing, and fuel . . . needful for the immediate and tempo-
rary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees
and freedmen and their wives and children” and the setting