On Wednesday,
March 4, 2015, the famous Plessy v Ferguson case was debated as a moot court in
Professor Smith’s FYS class. In this case, Homer Plessy, who was of mixed race,
sued the state of Louisiana for forcing him to move to an all black trailer on
Louisiana train even though he bought a ticket that would have allowed him to
sit in the all white section in the nicer part of the train. The court case’s actual date took place in the
year 1896 and it was the first time that the Separate Car Act and the doctrine
of “separate but equal “ was debated in
front of the supreme court.
The moot court
began with Team Reagan arguing that Plessy had the right and the privilege to
purchase a ticket to the white part of the train regardless of his race. Team
Reagan stated that Plessy was set up by the Louisiana railroad company and was
arrested by an undercover detective on the train even though Plessy did not
cause any trouble. The litigation team also pointed out that although the apartments
on the train were separate, they were not equal. The white sections on the
train were significantly nicer than the black sections. Team Reagan
concluded by saying that the state
of Louisiana had no constitutional authority over the railroad system since the
railroad expanded through several state lines. Team Red, White, and Better
thought otherwise. Their legal team argued that segregation of public
transportation and accommodations are indeed constitutional and that since the
railroad company was private, they had
the right to make their own rules. They also argued that the separate cable
cars were implemented for protection of both the black and white passengers.
They believed that if black and whites had their own cable cars, it would
prevent racial hatred towards the races and potential brawls.
The
moot court resulted in the Red, White,
and Better Team winning, since they had stronger arguments, and stronger legal
documents to support their arguments.
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