Following precedent in 1954 would have preserved racial segregation in public schools.

Evidence

A famous example is Brown v. Board of Education (1954), challenging the constitutionality of legally mandated racial segregation in public schools.” If the Supreme Court had followed precedent, it would have upheld the practice of racial segregation based on its earlier decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which permitted states to maintain “separate but equal” facilities.1° Gheultimateitouchstone Of constitutionality,» «Court: Thus, judges may, as they did in Brown, depart from precedent when they conclude that prior cases were wrongly decided. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2730

Categorization

• XREF: Canonical example linking Plessy’s ‘separate but equal’ doctrine to Brown’s overruling — bedrock course material.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The Cost of Sticking to Precedent’ — what Brown reveals about stare decisis as a limit and an obstacle.