Shelley v. Kraemer | |
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Argued January 14, 1948 Decided May 3, 1948 | |
Full case name | Shelley et ux. v. Kraemer et ux. McGhee et ux. v. Sipes et al. |
Citations | 334 U.S. 1 (more) |
Case history | |
Prior | Judgment for defendants; reversed, 198 S.W.2d 679 (Mo. 1947); certiorari granted. Judgment for plaintiffs; affirmed 25 N.W.2d 638 (Mich. 614); certiorari granted. |
Holding | |
The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from enforcing restrictive covenants that would prohibit a person from owning or occupying property based on race or color. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinion | |
Majority | Vinson, joined by Black, Frankfurter, Douglas, Murphy, Burton |
Reed, Jackson and Rutledge took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. XIV | |
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings | |
Corrigan v. Buckley (1926) |
Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948), is a landmark[1] United States Supreme Court case that held that racially restrictive housing covenants cannot legally be enforced.
The case arose after an African-American family purchased a house in St. Louis that was subject to a restrictive covenant preventing "people of the Negro or Mongolian Race" from occupying the property. The purchase was challenged in court by a neighboring resident and was blocked by the Supreme Court of Missouri before going to the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal.
In an opinion joined in by all participating justices, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson held that the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibits racially restrictive housing covenants from being enforced. Vinson held that while private parties could abide by the terms of a racially restrictive covenant, judicial enforcement of the covenant by a court qualified as a state action and was thus prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause.