The Power of the Court: Racial Discrimination as Evidenced through Supreme Court Decisions After 1954

This thesis reviews the way in which Supreme Court cases address racial discrimination from 1954 to 2014 and the impact that these decisions have had on society and politics. The focus will be on four monumental decisions: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), Loving v. Virginia (1967), Batson v. Kentucky (1986), and Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (2014). It is evident through an analysis of the cases and similar literature, that the Supreme Court has been striving to address the issue of racial injustice in a manner that assists the fight for equal rights. Although the decisions may not have immediate effects, the Supreme Court in these post-1954 decisions shows a desire to remedy past discriminatory tendencies and ideologies in the United States. However, these efforts are often criticized as being insufficient