Barr v. City of Columbia

Background

Five Black college students entered Taylor Street Pharmacy in Columbia, South Carolina. The store sold goods to all customers but refused to allow Black customers to sit at the lunch counter. After buying items, the students sat at the counter and politely waited to be served. The store manager had asked the police to arrest any sit-in demonstrators who refused to leave; officers arrived, the manager asked each student to leave, they remained seated, and the students were arrested and convicted in state courts for breach of the peace and criminal trespass.

Reasoning

The Court considered whether peaceful, quiet protesters who did nothing disorderly could be constitutionally convicted. The Court found no evidence that the students behaved in a disorderly way or provoked violence. Because the record showed they were polite and peaceful, the Court held there was insufficient evidence to support breach-of-the-peace convictions and reversed those convictions. The Court also reversed the trespass convictions for the reasons explained in a related opinion (Bouie v. City of Columbia), and sent the cases back for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.

Real world impact

The ruling protects peaceful sit-in demonstrators from being punished under breach-of-the-peace statutes when there is no evidence of disorderly conduct. It limits the ability of local authorities to uphold convictions based solely on a business owner’s refusal to serve and the presence of hostile onlookers. The decision also overturns the related trespass convictions and returns the matter to lower courts for further action consistent with the Court’s reasoning.

Dissents or concurrances

Some Justices wrote or joined separate opinions: a few would reverse on different legal grounds, while three Justices dissented from reversing the trespass convictions, seeing the arrests as enforcement of trespass law.