Despite having been a slaveholder himself, John Marshall Harlan came to be a famous dissenter in the Supreme Court, particularly when it came to cases that involved the rights of African Americans. Harlan was from Kentucky, where his family owned slaves. However, he was dedicated to the Union during the Civil War and was even a colonel in the Union army. He was a Republican, and he believed in civil equality. Harlan ran for governor twice, in 1871 and 1875, and lost both times. Nonetheless, when Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1877, he made Harlan a Supreme Court justice- a thank you to Harlan for helping him win over the Kentucky delegation at the Republican National Convention the year before.
As a Supreme Court justice, Harlan worked for civil rights and also was passionate about regulating big business. He was guided mainly by his personal beliefs and famously said, “I’d rather be right than consistent,” as a response to critics who disapproved of the changing arguments he made in different cases.
One case which Harlan is closely associated with is the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The ruling in this case deemed that racial segregation was constitutional, with all of the justices except for Harlan choosing to stand by the “separate but equal” doctrine. In his dissent, Justice Harlan famously wrote, “Our Constitution is colorblind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law,” expressing his view that it was not right for blacks to be treated as inferior and lack rights.
Harlan was not afraid to be vocal about his opinions. Even though some people tried to use his past against him, bringing up his background as a slaveholder to challenge his arguments for civil rights for blacks, Harlan stood by what he felt was important. His perceptions had become very different from the values he saw in his family when he was younger. In fact, Harlan was able to use his experiences of being part of a prominent slaveholding family in the South to support his arguments, for he had seen up close what kinds of effects the decisions of the Supreme Court would directly have on blacks in the South. Harlan’s change in beliefs brought him to often take an unpopular stance in the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, his willingness to support his cause even when he was often alone in doing so earned him the nickname “The Great Dissenter” and made him a memorable Supreme Court justice of this era, especially when it came to civil rights.
Sources:
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/antebellum/robes_harlan.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-dissenter-and-his-half-brother-10214325/
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall_Harlan#United_States_Supreme_Court
I love how you showed how he was never afraid to stand up against the norm. He supported ideas that at the time made him unpopular but nevertheless he stood by it. I also enjoyed how you supported that argument with the Plessy vs. Ferguson case where he went against the general norm and held up what the constitution truly says. Another big name in the dissenting world was Oliver Wendell Holmes. He changed his view about how the first amendment should be interpreted. Holmes made an unpopular move similar to Harlan by questioning how we interpreted the first amendment. After the great war acts like the espionage act allowed for people of enemies of war to be questioned and prosecuted without the deepest reasoning. Something that today would never be allowed. And it wouldnt be allowed thanks to the way Holmes fought for the way we applied the first amendment. His ideas were seen as something that supported the enemy and weakened our nation but in true he was applying the first amendment to have lest restrictions on free market and free speech. I think the way you detailed the importance of Harlan and the way other dissenters were influential that the word dissenter should resonate a great group of revolutionary men (and maybe women idk).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/the-most-powerful-dissent-in-american-history/278503/