Civil Rights Cases

The Court held that Congress lacked power under the Fourteenth Amendment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and businesses.

Overview

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 required equal access to inns, theaters, and railroads regardless of race. Five consolidated prosecutions tested its constitutionality. Justice Bradley, for an 8-1 majority, reasoned that the Fourteenth Amendment reached only state action, not private conduct, and the Thirteenth Amendment could not support public accommodations regulation because mere discrimination was not a badge of slavery. Justice Harlan alone dissented, arguing the amendments authorized Congress to secure practical freedom for the freedmen. The ruling gutted federal protection against private discrimination until Congress relied on the Commerce Clause in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.