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How did Homer Plessy’s lawyers argue that the Separate Car Act violated the Fourteenth Amendment?

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Plessy v. Ferguson judgment — Plessy v. Ferguson *Plessy* v. *Ferguson* judgment, issued by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 18, 1896, advancing the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws.

Homer Plessy’s legal team, led by Albion Tourgée, argued that the Separate Car Act was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.

A central component of their strategy involved the selection of Plessy, a man of mixed race, as the plaintiff. By doing so, the Citizens’ Committee aimed to demonstrate that the law was inherently flawed and unenforceable because it failed to provide a consistent, objective definition of "white" and "colored" races, thereby leaving the determination of race to the arbitrary judgment of railway conductors.

Furthermore, the attorneys contended that the act interfered with the personal freedom and liberty of citizens. They argued that the true purpose of the legislation was not to provide equal accommodations, but to enforce racial segregation, which they maintained was a violation of the civil rights and legal equality promised to all citizens under the Constitution.12