Justice Harlan's Dissenting Opinion

A dissenting opinion is an opinion in a legal case written by one or more judges expressing their disagreement with the majority opinion. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, Justice Harlan wrote a dissenting opinion.

I believe that Justice Harlan wrote a dissenting opinion, because he strongly disagreed with the majority's opinion. In 1896 race was one of the most controversial issues, and Judge Harlan hoped by writing a dissent that he would reach some people with his viewpoint. Most of the people in the South agreed with the majority viewpoint, so I believe he was mostly trying to reach them.

Justice Harlan made a good argument. The line that stood out to me was, "In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. ..."He is saying that man is man no matter of the color of his skin, all men are made and should be created equal. That line really stood out to me and I believe really brung home his argument. I think many people in 1866 would have not agreed with his opinion, and most likely would have just ignored it. Today I believe many people would agree with this argument, because times are changing. In today's day and age we are really trying to strive for equality with all humans. His opinion does shed light on the path of law, because later on Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education.