Question

Based on the majority opinion to what degree was the Supreme Court responsible for undoing the constitutional gains of reconstruction

Answer 1

Reconstruction opened the way to abolish slavery, with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

After the Civil War, covered by the protection of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution and the different Civil Rights Acts, African Americans were allowed -for a relatively short period- to vote, participate in the political process, and use public accommodations and some others, as manifestation of some of the constitutional gains.

Nonetheless, the Radical Republicans weren’t able to achieve their goal which was, to fully integrate the four million newly freed slaves into society virtually immediately, since The Supreme Court blocked those achievements by:

• Declaring the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in 1883.
• Saying that the Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the 14th Amendment to grant equal protections under the law to blacks, stating that only states and local governments could do that.
• Passsing a ruling stating that the Enforcement Act of 1871, which forbade meetings of Ku Klux Klan members, was unconstitutional.

In conclusion, the Supreme Court's rulings in these cases suppressed the civil rights movement in the latter half of the 19th century and affected the treatment of blacks in Southern states for decades.