Justice Harlan believed that all me are created equal. That everyone in this country was equal. He believed that the "separate but equal" doctrine was simply unconstitutional. He states this "Our constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." This shows how Justice Harlan believed more in equality and fairness than the color of ones skin.
Justice Harlan knew the constitution and amendments extremely well and used his knowledge to make his decisions. He used his knowledge specifically in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Harlan really believed that everyone is equal. Ironically he was a slave owner which shocked me because of what he preaches. For being a white man who believed that all men are equal he received a lot of criticism.
As to his knowledge of the 14th Amendment, Justice Harlan took it as it makes judging people by the color of their skin illegal. This then led Harlan to call out the state of Louisiana in the Plessy v Ferguson case. He called out the state by saying the having separate cars is illegal. Due to the state using the wording of the amendment to try and bypass what the law really means. By making the cars separate by color, Harlan knew that this was a violation of the amendment.
By believing what he did, Harlan released some key points that not many other people thought of or believed. One of his famous points was “in this country there is no superior, dominant ruling class of citizens,” and also stated how it is wrong to “regulate the enjoyment of citizens' civil rights solely on the basis of race.” These points that Harlan made were to express his point on how African Americans are not trying to win superiority, it is they just wanted to be treated as equal human beings.
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1335/john-marshall-harlan-i
https://louisville.edu/law/library/special-collections/the-john-marshall-harlan-collection/harlans-great-dissent
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