Supreme Court Classics

Skinner v. State of Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson (1942)

Criminal Sterilization Case

Listen to the opinion of the court (15 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Eugenic Sterilization Laws

Lane v. Wilson (1939)

Oklahoma Voting Registration Decision

Listen to the opinion of the court (14 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• New York Time article about attorney James M. Nabrit Jr.

Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)

University of Missouri School of Law Decision

Listen to the opinion of the court (22 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• December 26, 1938 Time Magazine article
• "The Long Road to Equality" by Robert L. Carter
• "The Mystery of Lloyd Gaines" by Chad Garrison
• The NAACP's Legal Strategy Against Segregated Education, 1925-1950 by Mark V. Tushnet
• "Who Was Lloyd Gaines?" by M. Zapp

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Separate but Equal Case

Listen to the opinion:

• Part 1 (Opinion of the Court) (28:40 m)
• Part 2 (Justice Harlan's dissent) (29:39 m)

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson by Mark Elliot
• Controlling Identity: Plessy, Privacy, and Racial Defamation by Jonathan D. Kahn
• Judgment of the Supreme Court (document)
• PBS Jim Crow Stories
• The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation by Charles A. Lofgren
• Plessy v. Ferguson - 100 Years Later
• Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents by Brook Thomas
• Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision that Legalized Racism by Harvey Fireside
• Street Law and the Supreme Court Historical Society
• We as Freeman: Plessy v. Ferguson by Keith Weldon Medley

Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)

Chinese Laundry Case

Listen to the opinion of the Court (41:28 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Cartoon
• Lesson Plan
• "Unexplainable on Grounds of Race: Doubts About Yick Wo" by Gabriel J. Chin

Strauder v. West Virginia (1879)

Jury Selection Discrimination Case

Listen to the opinion of the Court (23:04 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Lesson Plan with questions and answers
• New York Times article from March 1880
• Tolerating Racism in the Selection of Jurors by William E. Martin and Peter N. Thompson

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856)

Missouri Compromise Decision; Citizenship for Blacks Case

Listen to the opinion of the Court:

• Part 1 (45:50 m)
• Part 2 (51:08 m)
• Part 3 (54:51 m)

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery by Earl M. Maltz
• Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil by Mark A. Graber
• Dred Scott Case reargued in Second Life (video)
• Dred Scott Photograph
• Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents by Paul Finkelman
• FSN Bay Area Salutes Dred Scott (video)
• Harper's Magazine article from July 1907
• I, Dred Scott: A Fictional Slave Narrative Based on the Life and Legal Precedent of Dred Scott by Sheila P. Moses
• June 26, 1857, Speech by Abraham Lincoln
• The Library of Congress
• May 14, 1857, Speech by Frederick Douglass (read by Ossie Davis)
• New York Daily Times article
• Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857 by Austin Allen
• Reconsideration of Dred Scott v. Sandford (video)
• Slavery, Law, and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective by Don E. Fehrenbacher
• Street Law and the Supreme Court Historical Society
• Washington University in St. Louis Dred Scott Case Collection