Most Fourteenth Amendment litigation served corporate rather than Black rights

Evidence

The Fourteenth Amendment became the most cited amendment in Supreme Court cases, leaving a profound impact on private law. A 1912 study found that of the 604 Fourteenth Amendment cases decided by the Supreme Court, more than half involved corporations and largely protected their power, including by striking down attempts to end child labor and establish a minimum wage. Less than 5 percent of those cases concerned the rights of African Americans, who lost nearly all of the cases they brought. Once again, white ownership interests took precedence over Black freedom and safety. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 552

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the 1912 study’s methodology, and whether ‘lost nearly all cases they brought’ holds up against more recent scholarship.
• XREF: Figures into the reader’s case study of how historians dispute the reframing argument — this legal-repurposing claim is exactly the kind of specific empirical claim to test. — connects to: Forum choice between state and federal courts favored corporate defendants — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2378