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Interpreting the Constitution: Is the Intent of the Framers Controlling? If not, what is?
Bittker, Boris
Bittker, Boris
Abstract
In Brown v. Board ofEducation, decided in 1954, the Supreme Court held that public school segregation deprived black pupils of "equal educational opportunities" in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment: "No State shall ... deny to any person within itsjurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." In reaching this conclusion, however, the Court said nothing about whether the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment-the Congress that drafted the Amendment in 1866 and the States that ratified it in 1866-69-intended to outlaw segregation in the public schools; instead, the Court treated their intent as irrelevant, observing that "we cannot tum the clock back" to the era of the Framers.