The Waite Court (1874–88)

Racial Discrimination/civil Rights

CourtSpeak: Yick Wo v. Hopkins
Equal Protection Rights Case (1896)

Justice Stanley Matthews (unanimous): “Though the law itself be fair on its face, and impartial in appearance, yet, if it is applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand, so as practically to make unjust and illegal discriminations between persons in similar circumstances, material to their rights, the denial of equal justice is still within the prohibition of the constitution.”