Quote#Politics & Power
I cannot see but that, according to the principles this day…
Quote byJohn Marshall Harlan · 1833–1911
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
English (original)
I cannot see but that, according to the principles this day announced, such state legislation, although conceived in hostility to, and enacted for the purpose of humiliating, citizens of the United States of a particular race, would be held to be consistent with the Constitution
— John Marshall Harlan
More from John Marshall Harlan
The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race while they are on a public highway is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution. It cannot be …
they will be infinitely less than those that will surely come from state legislation regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race
An English historian, contrasting the London of his day with the London of the time when its streets, supplied only with oil-lamps, were scenes of nightly robberies, says that "the adventurers in gas-lights did more for the prevention of …
he objecting, and ought never to cease objecting, to the proposition that citizens of the white and black race can be adjudged criminals because they sit, or claim the right to sit, in the same public coach on a public highway
Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.
The thin disguise of "equal" accommodations for passengers in railroad coaches will not mislead anyone, nor atone for the wrong this day done