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How did the U.S. Supreme Court vote in Plessy v. Ferguson?
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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.
In the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 7–1 to uphold the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. One justice did not participate in the decision.12
The majority opinion, written by Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown, established the "separate but equal" doctrine, arguing that state-mandated segregation did not violate the Thirteenth or Fourteenth Amendments. Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan provided the lone dissent, famously declaring that the U.S. Constitution is "color-blind" and that the law should not tolerate classes among citizens.13