From Prohibiting Segregation to Requiring Integration

Abstract

The Supreme Court’s constitutional decisions on race and the schools merit study not only because of their intrinsic importance but even more so as a means of understanding the nature and source of constitutional law in general. They demonstrate, perhaps more clearly than the court’s decisions in any other area, not only the trite and obvious fact that “the Constitution is what the Court says it is” and therefore does not restrain the court’s power, but also the much less frequently noted fact that neither is the court restrained by any requirement of truth or logic in its written opinions.