 Paul Jones v. George W. Jones |
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Paul Jones initiated a suit in a Wisconsin Territory court against George W. Jones for several sums of money owed to him for labor, goods, wares, and merchandise. George argued that Paul was purchased as a slave for life from French inhabitants who were entitled to hold slaves according to the Northwest Ordinance of 1787.
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| People v. Belous |
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This is a case before the California Supreme Court looking at abortion rights. It focused on a physician's ability to practice medicine unimpeded and the extent of physicians' abilities to determine when an abortion would be necessary to protect a woman's life.
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| People v. Buffum |
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One of California's pre-Roe v. Wade abortion cases, the decision in Buffum attempted to regulate abortion tourism to Mexico. This case determined that California could not legislate medical practices in Mexico, causing an increase in abortion clinics across the border in Tijuana.
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| Perez v. Sharp |
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In this case, a 4-3 majority of the Supreme Court of California ruled that the state's ban on interracial marriage violated the 14th Amendment. It was the first of any state to strike down an anti-miscegenation law in the U.S, preceding Loving v. Virginia by almost 20 years.
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| Peter and others v. Susanna Elliott and Rachell Elliott |
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This freedom suit was brought forth by 22 enslaved people who were freed by a deed of manumission that was then contested by the executrixes of the former enslaver upon his death. The court found in favor of the re-enslavement of Peter and the other 21 freedmen.
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| Plymouth, Massachusetts, Colonial Court Cases |
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These excerpts from the Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England document Native Peoples' engagement with the law after a 1641 code grants due process.
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| Roberto Alvarez, et al. v. E. L. Owen, et al. |
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This case was the first successful school desegregation case in the United States, decided fifteen years before Brown v. Board of Education. When the school board in Lemon Grove, California, attempted to build a separate school for students of Mexican origin, the court ruled that the segregation violated state laws which considered people of Mexican descent to be white.
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| Smith v. Directors of Independent School Dist. of Keokuk |
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In this case, the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's ruling that the Keokuk school district could not refuse to admit a Black student based on race. Legal precedent for this case as set in the 1868 ruling in Clark v. Board of School Directors.
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| Somerset v. Stewart |
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This case heard before the English Court of King's Bench determined that slavery was unsupported by English Common Law and that no enslaved person could be forced out of England to be sold into slavery. James Sommerset was an enslaved person who had been purchased by Charles Stewart in Boston, Massachusetts, then taken to England. Sommerset later escaped, and Stewart had him captured and imprisoned on a ship headed to Jamaica. Sommerset's godparents applied for a writ of habeas corpus. Following the court’s decision, enslaved people in the American Colonies filed freedom suits on Mansfield's ruling.
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| State of Iowa v. Katz |
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In this case, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a lower court's jury verdict that Katz Drug Store violated the civil rights of three Black patrons when workers refused to serve them at the store's soda fountain.
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| State of Missouri v. Celia |
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In this case, eighteen-year-old Celia was convicted of murdering her enslaver. The case considered whether Celia was guilty of murder or if she could be acquitted due to self-defense from sexual assault. The court ruled that Celia's enslaved status prevented her from being eligible to protect herself, and she was sentenced to death.
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| The Slave, Grace |
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In this freedom suit, an enslaved woman who had spent time in England was re-enslaved once she voluntarily returned to her home in Antigua. The court found that while she became free once she set foot on English soil, her status reverted to that of enslaved once she returned to Antigua.
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| The True Facts in the Case of Felix Quander |
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In August 1879, Felix Quander was shot and injured by law enforcement officers while evading arrest. In a letter to the Editor of the National Republican newspaper in D.C., Quander's attorney describes the event, as well as previous incidents that lead up to the shooting and capture of Quander. Related newspaper coverage of the ordeal and subsequent court case follows. While the National Republican and Evening Star tend to display varying degrees of sympathy for Quander, the Alexandria Gazette is harsh in its judgment of the man and his reputation.
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| Trouble in Fairfax: The Quander Case |
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In February 1879, Felix Quander and his family were the victims of violence at the hands of county officials. In a letter to the Editor of the National Republican newspaper in D.C., Quander, or someone writing on his behalf, describes the attack upon his family. Related newspaper coverage of events follow.
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| Unis et al. v. Charlton's Administrator et al. |
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In this freedom suit, the descendants of a Black woman named Flora claimed their freedom on the grounds that Flora was free before being abducted and sold into slavery in Virginia. Between 1826-1855, a series of cases bounced around county and appellate courts in Virginia before finally being decided against freedom for Flora's descendants.
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| United States v. Cartozian |
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In this case, the District Court of Oregon debated whether an Armenian immigrant was white enough to be naturalized. Just two years after the Supreme Court ruled that Ozawa, a Japanese man, and Thind, a South Asian man, were not white enough for naturalization, the Oregon court ruled that people from Asia Minor were close enough to European descent to be naturalized.
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| United States, ex rel. Standing Bear, v. George Crook |
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In this case, Judge Elmer S. Dundy ruled that "an Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States," and that they were entitled to the right of expatriation. Standing Bear and 29 other Ponca had left their reservation in Indian Territory without the permission of the federal government and returned to Nebraska. They were later arrested and petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, which was granted. Judge Dundy's opinion led to the release of the Ponca petitioners.
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| Vietnamese Fishermen's Association v. The Knights of the Klu Klux Klan |
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A sign of progress in the fight for civil rights for Asian immigrants, the Vietnamese Fishermen's Association filed a class action lawsuit against the KKK and won. The KKK was burning the fishermen's boats and were found guilty of violating the Vietnamese fishermen's civil rights.
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| Winny v. Phebe Whitesides alias Prewitt |
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This case was the first freedom suit heard by the Missouri Supreme Court. Winny claimed her freedom on account of being brought into the free territory of what would become Illinois before being removed to Missouri. The court found in favor of her freedom, establishing a "once free, always free" precedent that was eventually overturned by the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford.
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