Judicial · Federal
Supreme Court strikes down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 (Civil Rights Cases)
- Direction
- -2 — major harm to Freedmen
- Force
- 1.00 — enacted, vetoed, or final
- Status
- Decided
- Date
- 1883-10-15
Why this rating
On October 15, 1883 the Supreme Court held in the Civil Rights Cases that the Fourteenth Amendment did not reach private discrimination, striking down the Civil Rights Act of 1875's ban on discrimination in public accommodations. Rated -2: it stripped away an existing federal protection and legitimated private discrimination nationwide, clearing the legal path that Plessy would pave thirteen years later — a direct, large-scale removal of the lineage's civil-rights guarantees.
Summary
On October 15, 1883 the Supreme Court held in the Civil Rights Cases that the Fourteenth Amendment did not reach private discrimination, striking down the Civil Rights Act of 1875's ban on discrimination in public accommodations. Rated -2: it stripped away an existing federal protection and legitimated private discrimination nationwide, clearing the legal path that Plessy would pave thirteen years later — a direct, large-scale removal of the lineage's civil-rights guarantees.
Sources
- Civil Rights Act of 1875 — Federal Judicial Center — court opinion · primary · historical
Rated under the published impact rubric. Direction records what a measure would do if fully effective; force records how far it has actually travelled. Neither is inferred — both trace to the sources above. Think something here is wrong? Tell us and we will log the correction.