Venue: | SCOTUS |
Facts: | Some various denials of access: getting accomodations in hotels, going to theaters, going to the opera, or riding on the train. |
Posture: | Unknown. |
Issue: | Can congress enact something like the Civil Rights Law, that penalizes denials of access to privately owned and operated facilities? Can the act of a business owner-operator by refusing accomodation be regarded as imposing a badge of slavery? |
Holding: | No. |
Rule: | 14A prohibits state action. 13A prohibits slavery, not stuff like this. |
Reasoning: | Look at the text of 14A: it talks about state actions, not individual
actions. As for 13A, the badges of slavery are things like
involunary servitude or incapacity to make contracts.
Mere discrimination is not a badge of slavery. |
Dicta: | Harlan (dissenting): The substance and spirit of these amendments is has been sacrificed by subtle and ingenious verbal criticism. |