Read the excerpt below from the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court in *Plessy v. Ferguson* (1896):
'The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but, in the nature of things, it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation, in places where they are liable to be brought into contact, do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other...'
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best describes the constitutional rationale used by the Supreme Court majority to justify state-mandated segregation?
- The Court distinguished between political equality, which the Fourteenth Amendment protected, and social equality, which it argued could not be enforced by legislation.Answer
- BThe Court determined that racial separation in public transport was a form of de facto segregation shaped by private customs rather than de jure segregation enacted by state law.
- CThe Court argued that the Thirteenth Amendment's loophole for involuntary servitude permitted states to regulate the social interactions and movements of citizens.
- DThe Court concluded that segregation was necessary to maintain the economic stability of the sharecropping system and prevent labor contract violations.