Morgan v. Virginia

Morgan v. Virginia
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 27, 1946
Decided June 3, 1946
Full case nameIrene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia
Citations328 U.S. 373 (more)
66 S. Ct. 1050; 90 L. Ed. 1317
Court membership
Chief Justice
vacant
Associate Justices
Hugo Black · Stanley F. Reed
Felix Frankfurter · William O. Douglas
Frank Murphy · Robert H. Jackson
Wiley B. Rutledge · Harold H. Burton
Case opinions
MajorityReed, joined by Black, Frankfurter, Douglas, Murphy
ConcurrenceBlack
ConcurrenceFrankfurter
ConcurrenceRutledge
DissentBurton
Jackson took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946), is a major United States Supreme Court case. In this landmark 1946 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–1 that Virginia's state law enforcing segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional.[1][2]

The case was argued by William H. Hastie, the former governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands and later a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP was co-counsel; he later was appointed as a US Supreme Court justice.[3] Hastie and Marshall used an innovative strategy to brief and argue the case. Instead of relying upon the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment, they argued successfully that segregation on interstate travel violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.[4] The Court balanced the interest in "local police power" against uniformity in interstate travel regulations and decided that a single uniform rule was required: "Where uniformity is essential for the functioning of commerce, a state may not interpose its local regulation".[5]

Virginia and other Southern states ignored the ruling, and continued with their practice of enforcing racial segregation in interstate transportation vehicles and facilities.

  1. ^ Hall, Kermit (2009). The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions. Oxford University Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0195379396 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ "Morgan v. Virginia (June 3, 1946)". www.encyclopediavirginia.org. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  3. ^ "Milestones," August 27, 2007 edition of TIME Magazine at p. 23.
  4. ^ "Jim Crow Stories: Richard Wormser, "'Morgan v. Virginia' (1946)" , The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, 2002, PBS, accessed 5 February 2013
  5. ^ Morgan 328 US at 377, 386