Williams v Mississippi PDF

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Williams v. Mississippi Notes Williams v. State of Mississippi, 170 U.S. 213 (1898) ● Facts of the case ○ Cause of acon ■ Civil or criminal case? Why does the court need to weigh in? ■ Criminal case with Henry Williams ■ He was charged with murder but said his trial was unfair ○ Pares ■ Who are the people of the case? ■ Henry Williams - a black man charged with murder ■ Mississippi - a racist ass state ○ Dispute between the pares ■ How did the dispute happen? ■ Mississippi court has an all-white jury, and Henry Williams argued that this was unfair to him and is the reason he was indicted ■ The vong laws in place in Mississippi were set up to disenfranchise African Americans ○ Lower court decision ■ Mississippi court denied his argument and he appealed and took it to the supreme court ■ 1896 in the Circuit Court of Washington County, Mississippi, Henry Williams was indicted for murder by an all-white jury and sentenced to be hanged ■ They tried to quash the indictment but were denied because the law itself was wrien in a way that it could be applied to everyone ■ Then made a moon for the case to be taken to federal court --denied ■ Then made a moon for a retrial----denied ■ Appeal taken by the Mississippi supreme court ■ Upheld the laws themselves were not discriminatory ■ Appealed to the US supreme court which they took in 1898 ■ Argued that the vong laws in the 1890 Mississippi constuon violated the fourteenth amendment ● Legal issue in queson Do the provisions of the constuon of the state of Mississippi violate the rights bestowed on people through the 14th amendment of the US Constuon? ■ Does the language of the Mississippi constuon allow legal discriminaon against black cizens? ●

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Holding/decision ○ They stated that the US Constuon forbids discriminaon against cizens based on race, but that the discriminaon must be the direct result of the constuon or laws of the state, and not of the administraon of them ○ Essenally, the language of the law does not discriminate, but it is possible that the people upholding the law did discriminate ○ However, there is no way to legally punish those who discriminate ○ Holding: the US supreme court unanimously rejected Williams contenon in a 9-0 vote There is no discriminaon in the state's requirements for voters to pass a literacy test and pay poll taxes, as these were applied to all voters. From

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Raonale and the rule of law ○ What was the ruling based on (the constuon, state law, federal law?) ■ Basically, you would have to sue the people who did it, but there was no way at the me to even do that ○ Aermath ■

Other southern states created new constuons with similar provisions through 1908 in order to disenfranchise black cizens and poor white cizens...