Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote the dissent. While there may
be in Louisiana persons of different races who are not citizens
of the United States, the words in the act 'white and colored
races' necessarily include all citizens of the United States of
both races residing in that state. So that we have before us a
state enactment that compels, under penalties, the separation of
the two races in railroad passenger coaches, and makes it a
crime for a citizen of either race to enter a coach that has
been assigned to citizens of the other race. Thus, the state
regulates the use of a public highway by citizens of the United
States solely upon the basis of race. However apparent the
injustice of such legislation may be, we have only to consider
whether it is consistent with the constitution of the United
States. The thirteenth amendment does not permit the withholding
or the deprivation of any right necessarily inhering in freedom.
It not only struck down the institution of slavery as previously
existing in the Un