Plessy versus Lochner: The Berea College Case

Legal scholars and historians have often claimed to find intellectual affinities between the U.S. Supreme Court's notorious opinions in Plessy v. Ferguson and Lochner v. New York. In Plessy, the Court upheld a law requiring private railroads to enforce segregation, while in Lochner the Court invalidated a maximum hours law for bakers. Bruce Ackerman asserts that Plessy had its intellectual roots “in the laissez‐faire theories expressed one decade later in cases like Lochner.” In support of his thesis, Ackerman relies onthe Plessy Court's statement that if the two races are to mingle, it must be “the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other's merits and a voluntary consent of individuals.” Brook Thomas also blames the Plessy ruling on laissez‐faire ideology. He argues that laissez‐faire theory led the Court to seek to encourage the “natural” forces of segregation.