Mendez v. Westminster

Date Created: 18 February, 1946

Place Created: Orange County, California

Year Created: 1946

Description: Mendez v. Westminster was a landmark 1947 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that held the segregation of Mexican‑American students into separate “Mexican schools” in Orange County, California, unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case originated in February 1946 as a class‑action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, brought by five Mexican‑American families who challenged the forced placement of their children into language‑based remedial schools solely based on ancestry. After Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in February 1946, the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed that segregating “Mexican” students violated both federal and California constitutional provisions, setting a precedent that directly influenced the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Orange County, California