Sweatt v. Painter

Sweatt (plaintiff), who is Black, was denied admission to the well-resourced University of Texas Law School solely on racial grounds by Painter and other Texas officials (defendants), though the state's separate blacks-only law school offered to admit him. Sweatt sued, arguing his rejection violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause; the trial judge held the Clause required only a comparable legal education, and on remand, after the Texas Court of Civil Appeals directed further findings, the judge found the two schools' educational opportunities comparable and dismissed the case, a ruling the state appellate courts affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and heard arguments on whether to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which had permitted racial segregation if the government provided similar facilities for each race.