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Civil Rights & Equal Protection

Bolling v. Sharpe

Decided: 1954

In brief

Companion case to Brown, holding school segregation in Washington, D.C. violates due process under the Fifth Amendment.

The Court's ruling in depth

Because the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause applies only to the states, Brown alone could not reach segregated schools in federal Washington, D.C. In Bolling, the Court held that segregation in D.C. violated the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, launching the doctrine of 'reverse incorporation' by which equal-protection principles bind the federal government.

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