Now, conceding, for the sake of the argument, that the admission to an
inn, a public conveyance or a place of public amusement, on equal terms
with all other citizens, is the right of every man and all classes of
men, is it any more than one of those rights which the States by the
Fourteenth Amendment are forbidden to deny to any person? And is the
Constitution violated until the denial of the right has some State
sanction or authority? Can the act of a mere individual, the owner of
the inn, the public conveyance or place of amusement, refusing the
accommodation, be justly regarded as imposing any badge of slavery or
servitude upon the applicant, or only as inflicting an ordinary civil
injury, properly, cognizable by the laws of the State, and presumably
subject to redress by those laws until the contrary appears?
After giving to these questions all the consideration which their
importance demands, we are forced to the conclusion that such an act of
refusal has nothing to do with slavery or involuntary servitude, and
that if it is violative of any right of the party, his redress is to be
sought under the laws of the State; or if those laws are adverse to his
rights and do not protect him, his remedy will be found in the corrective
legislation which Congress has adopted, or may adopt for counteracting
the effect of State laws, or State action prohibited by the Fourteenth
Amendment. It would be running the slavery argument into the ground to
make it apply to every act of discrimination which a person may see fit
to make as to the guests he will entertain, or as to the people he will
take into his coach or cab or car, or admit to his concert or theatre,
or deal with in other matters of intercourse or business. Innkeepers
and public carriers, by the laws of all the States so far as we are
aware, are bound, to the extent of their facilities, to furnish proper
accommodation to all unobjectionable persons who in good faith apply for
them. If the laws themselves make any unjust discrimination, amenable to
the prohibitions of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress has full power to
afford a remedy under that amendment and in accordance with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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