Chief Justice Warren Burger was the official author of the unanimous decision in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 US 1 (1971); however, the published opinion consists primarily of Justice Potter Stewart's draft dissent to Burger's original position. The Chief Justice made some revisions, but Potter Stewart had a much greater hand in formulating the opinion than Burger.
Explanation
The decision in this case was contentious and involved quite a bit of pressure and maneuvering on the part of the more progressive members of the Court, Justices William O. Douglas, William J. Brennan, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, with support from the usually conservative Justice John Marshall Harlan II. Chief Justice Burger and Justice Black initially wanted to overturn the District Court's decision, and were expected to be joined by Justice Blackmun, who often voted with Burger during his early years on the Court.
Potter Stewart favored strong support for District Court Judge's decision, and circulated a draft of his planned dissenting opinion, should the Court side with Burger. Between Stewart's well-reasoned dissent and the progressive justices' arguments, Chief Justice Burger and Justice Black grudgingly conceded affirming the lower court ruling on constitutional grounds (Justice Blackmun was undoubtedly less resistant).
Burger wrote a tepid first draft that the progressive bloc found unsatisfactory and which, after numerous rounds of comments and revisions, was finally scrapped in favor of Justice Stewart's work, with the addition of a few revisions from the Chief Justice.
For more information, see Related Questions, below.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896),
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The U.S. Supreme Court ordered schools to gradually racially integrate.
Attorney Thurgood Marshall led the civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka to a successful hearing at the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954. From 1965 to 1967, he was Solicitor General of the US, and in 1967 became the first African-American to be appointed a justice on the US Supreme Court.
Segregation in US schools ended in 1954, with the ruling of Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education. Even with the court ruling, though, many schools remained voluntarily segregated for many years afterwards.
The Supreme Court opinion for Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was written by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The decision was unanimous, which means all nine justices agreed with the opinion.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the US Supreme Court in 1953 to replace Chief Justice Fred Vinson, who had died in office. Warren wrote the landmark opinion for Brown v. Board of Education, (1954)
what did the U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education refer?
The Supreme Court
To cite a Supreme Court opinion in a legal document, follow this format: Case name, volume number, reporter abbreviation, page number (year). For example, Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
Brown
Yes
The Supreme Court case Brown vs. Board of Education was about racial segregation in public schools. The court cased declared this segregation unconstitutional.
Brown vs. The Board of Education- Supreme Court decision that made segregation in schools unconstitutional. Linda Brown vs. Topeka, Kansas.
The "separate but equal" doctrine was ruled uncostitional
The Supreme Court has no power to enforce its own decisions.
the 1950s