#ignoringprecedent

Ignoring Precedent

Buchanan v. Warley (1917)

In public discourse there is a misconception that de jure (by law) segregation was not declared unconstitutional until the reformative years of Civil Rights laws of the 1950’s and 60’s— specifically the Brown decision. However, this is not the case. Segregation by race was decided by both the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and upheld by Supreme Court case Buchanan v. Warley (1917). In Buchanan, a White man, Buchanan sold a house to a Black man, Warley on a block that was 80% White in Louisville, Kentucky. At the time, Louisville had a city ordinance that prevented the sale due to the racial composition of the area. Buchanan sued Warley for non- completion of the sale. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Buchanan citing that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, “[assured] to the colored race the enjoyment of all the civil rights...enjoyed by white persons”. 

So then why the need for subsequent litigation? The simple answer is the Taney court disregarded the precedent of Buchanan in Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Plessy would go on to create the standard that Brown later declared unconstitutional: “separate but equal”.