Many African-American leaders were outraged and disappointed that the Supreme Court declared the first two sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional. On October 20, 1883, T. Thomas Fortune, the editor of the "New York Globe" wrote: "The colored people of the United States feel to-day as if they had been baptized in ice water". Many felt it was the end of an era in which the Federal government would protect the rights of African-American citizens.
The Supreme Court decision severely restricted the power of the federal government to guarantee equal status under the law to blacks. State officials in the South took advantage of the decision and began to enact laws that legalized the treatment of blacks as second-class citizens for another seventy years. The court's decision thus ultimately led to the enactment of state laws, such as Jim Crow laws, which made racial segregation the law.
United States Statutes at Large
The United States Statutes at Large, commonly referred to as the Statutes at Large and abbreviated Stat., is the official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress. Each act and resolution of Congress is called a slip law, which is classified as either public law (abbreviated Pub.L.) or private law (Pvt.L.), and designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a Congress session, slip laws (now commonly called session laws) are compiled into "Statutes at Large", which are numbered and organised by Congress session. They are part of a three-part model for publication of federal statutes consisting of slip laws, session laws ("Statutes at Large"), and codification ("United States Code").
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 (–337), sometimes called Enforcement Act or Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction era to guarantee African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prevent being excluded from jury duty. The bill was passed by the 43rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875. Several years later, the Supreme Court ruled in "Civil Rights Cases" (1883) that sections of the act were unconstitutional.
The drafting of the bill was done in early 1870 by Senator Charles Sumner. It was with the assistance of John Mercer Langston, a prominent African-American who established the law department at Howard University. The bill was proposed by Senator Sumner and co-sponsored by Representative Benjamin F. Butler, both Republicans from Massachusetts, in the 41st United States Congress in 1870. The act was eventually passed by the 43rd Congress in February 1875 and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875.
The Supreme Court, in an 8 to 1 decision, declared the act unconstitutional in the "Civil Rights Cases" on October 15, 1883. Justice John Marshall Harlan provided the lone dissent. The Court held the Equal Protection Clause within the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits discrimination by the state and local government, but it does not give the federal government the power to prohibit discrimination by private individuals and organizations. The Court also held that the Thirteenth Amendment was meant to eliminate "the badge of slavery," but not to prohibit racial discrimination in public accommodations. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last civil rights bill to be signed into law in the United States until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is notable as one of the major pieces of legislation related to Reconstruction that were passed by Congress after the American Civil War. These include the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the four Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868, the three Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871, and the three Constitutional Amendments adopted between 1865 and 1870.
Provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were later adopted by Congress during the Civil Rights Movement as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This legislation relied on the Commerce Clause contained in of the Constitution of the United States.
Garner v. Louisiana
Garner v. Louisiana, , was an important civil rights case argued by Thurgood Marshall before the Supreme Court. On December 11, 1961, the court ruled that Louisiana could not convict peaceful sit-in protesters who refused to leave dining establishments under the state's "disturbing the peace" laws.
African-American students from Southern University sat at a "whites only" segregated lunch bar at Sitman's Drugstore in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The manager called the Police after the students quietly remained even though they were asked to move to another counter. After ordering the black patrons to leave, the Police arrested them and charged them with disturbing the peace. The claim was that their behavior could "foreseeably disturb or alarm the public," according to the state's "disturbing the peace" statute.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People defended the student demonstrators as did the Kennedy administration's Justice Department, which filed a legal brief on their behalf.
In a 9-0 decision, the court ruled in the African-American students' favor, arguing the state violated due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment and finding there was no evidence the students' behavior could have foreseeably disturbed the peace. In his written opinion, Justice John Marshall Harlan compared sit-in demonstrations to verbal expression as a form of free speech.
Justice William O. Douglas in his concurring opinion said, “For the police are supposed to be on the side of the Constitution, not on the side of discrimination. Yet if all constitutional questions are to be put aside and the problem treated merely in terms of disturbing the peace, I would have difficulty in reversing these judgments. I think, however, the constitutional questions must be reached and that they make reversal necessary.”
"Garner v. Louisiana" was an important case for the Civil Rights Movement, and one of many civil rights cases argued before the Warren Court (1953-69).
Eventually, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce."
Federal judiciary of the United States
The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three co-equal branches of the Federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution. Article III of the Constitution requires the establishment of a Supreme Court and permits the Congress to create other federal courts, and place limitations on their jurisdiction. Article III United States federal judges are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate to serve until they resign, are impeached and convicted, retire, or die.
The federal courts are composed of three levels of courts. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court. It is generally an appellate court that operates under discretionary review, which means that the Court can choose which cases to hear, by granting of writs of certiorari. There is generally no right of appeal to the Supreme Court. In a few situations (like lawsuits between state governments or some cases between the federal government and a state) it sits as a court of original jurisdiction.
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate federal appellate courts. There are 13 appellate courts that determine if the law was applied correctly in trial courts. In some cases, Congress has diverted appellate jurisdiction to specialized courts, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.