Henry Billings Brown - Wikipedia

Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that March 2 is the anniversary of the birth of associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 29 December 1890 to 28 May 1906 Henry Billings Brown who authored hundreds of opinions in his 31 years as a federal judge, including the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the legality of racial segregation in public transportation.
He was a product of his time which is sad in the respect that he wrote majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson.
I am thankful that Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned in the case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) when the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public education was unconstitutional.

Image: Henry B Brown The Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States (Artist- Lewis Thomas Ives)

Clarence Thomas on Plessy v. Ferguson: Summary, Case Brief, Effects, Facts (1997)
"Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court.
Thomas grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and was educated at the College of the Holy Cross and at Yale Law School. In 1974, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri and subsequently practiced law there in the private sector. In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Senator John Danforth (R-MO) and in 1981 was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
In 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He served in that role for 16 months and on July 1, 1991, was nominated by Bush to fill Marshall's seat on the United States Supreme Court. Thomas's confirmation hearings were bitter and intensely fought, centering on an accusation that he had sexually harassed—or engaged in unseemly behavior toward—attorney Anita Hill, a subordinate at the Department of Education and subsequently at the EEOC. The U.S. Senate ultimately confirmed Thomas by a vote of 52–48.
Since joining the Court, Thomas has taken a textualist approach, seeking to uphold what he sees as the original meaning of the United States Constitution and statutes. He is generally viewed as the most conservative member of the Court. Thomas has often approached federalism issues in a way that limits the power of the federal government and expands power of state and local governments. At the same time, Thomas' opinions have generally supported a strong executive branch within the federal government.


Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal".[1] The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1 with the majority opinion written by Justice Henry Billings Brown and the dissent written by Justice John Marshall Harlan.
"Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until its repudiation in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.[2] After the Supreme Court ruling, the New Orleans Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens), which had brought the suit and had arranged for Homer Plessy's arrest in an act of civil disobedience in order to challenge Louisiana's segregation law, stated, "We, as freemen, still believe that we were right and our cause is sacred."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC-h142LfwI


By the way, my mother was born on March 2, 1927 and died on September 28, 2001.

Background from oyez.org/justices/henry_b_brown
"Henry Billings Brown was born and raised in a small Massachusetts town. He led a privileged life, and was a good though undistinguished student. He avoided service in the Civil War by hiring a substitute, an accepted practice in his day.

Brown held several government positions at the federal and state levels. He was a well-regarded federal judge in Michigan when Howell Edmonds Jackson, a former senator and friend of President Harrison, urged Brown's move to the Supreme Court. Brown returned Jackson's favor by urging Harrison to "bring up" Jackson three years later.

Brown authored in excess of 450 majority opinions during his years on the Court. He gave preference to private property claims and he defended free competition. But Brown also took a broad view of the state's police powers including governmental restrictions on laissez faire.

Brown will probably be forever marked by a single opinion he authored for a majority: Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown no doubt reflected the view of his day that whites were biologically separate from blacks and that whites were superior to blacks as a group."

FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon SSG William Jones LTC John Shaw

Lots of good Supreme court info this morning

SMSgt Lawrence McCarter LT Brad McInnis PO3 Bob McCord CW3 Dick McManus SGT John " Mac " McConnell CWO3 Dennis M. MSgt Stephen Council LTC (Join to see) LTC Stephan PorterLTC Stephen C. LTC Greg Henning SGT Gregory Lawritson Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SGT Jim Arnold Maj Robert Thornton Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen SFC Francisco Rosario LTC (Join to see) PO3 Phyllis Maynard

Not an honorable man imho