For most Americans today, the law is a static entity, something which, from day to day, does not cross our minds because of its relatively fixed position. Theoretically, the law protects all Americans equally, regardless of race, ethnicity, or class, and is the tool of just and impartial lawmakers who represent us in Congress. The judiciary, both at the state and federal levels, serves as the interpreters of the law, supposedly wielding little power in influencing state and national policy. That is the theory. Following the Civil War, the United States was a country in turmoil, having narrowly averted the secession of eleven states and now faced with the prospect of integrating those states back into the Union. From 1860, the beginning of the Civil War, to 1920, the beginning of the first World War, American society changed drastically with the integration of the freedman and the Industrial Revolution, and the law changed with it. Unfortunately, during this time American law was influenced heavily by a handful of elites who used the law to their benefit while hampering the efforts of minorities to succeed. This influence on American law had profound effects on minorities in two ar

American society changed exponentially during the decades between the Civil War and World War I. The emancipation of the slaves, combined with the consolidation of businesses and the move to a commercial economy due to the Industrial Revolution, made the United States a place ripe with opportunities to suppress minorities. White elites at this time used their power to influence American lawmakers and courts to make and interpret laws, such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Welton v. Missouri, which would protect their position in society. This resulted in the retarding of the advancement of the lower classes for years to come, and even now one can see the effects of this misuse of the law when one looks at the vastly stratified classes which exist today.

Many of these burgeoning new corporations used their newfound power to hire lawyers to help keep the legal system attuned to their liking. In Welton v. Missouri, the validity of licensing fees for retailers selling out-of-state products was debated. Due to the rise of big corporations, companies like I.M. Singer & Co. had a vested interest, profit-making, in breaking down state tariffs on trade. Welton, an agent of the company, had been convicted of evading the fee, and the case came to the Supreme Court. The difference in defense was noticeable, as the "counsel for Missouri simply stood on the[ir] precedents in a terse, five-page brief. Singer, on the other hand, hired two luminaries from the Missouri bar who compiled lengthy briefs that spoke directly to the policy issues involved in the dispute" (Belknap, 96.) The Court agreed with Singer's counsel, stating that the nature of the new economy had outdated the old Missouri law and that there could be no boundary as to what a state could limit and tax in regards to out-of-state products. This victory for Singer enabled companies in American to become more nationalized, thus more and more of them became concerned with litigation of the kind. It is clear from the Welton case that large corporations, whose profits were earned by only a select few, swayed the outcome of cases by hiring their own lawyers to focus on those matters exclusively, while at the same time aggressively pursuing a national base for their products. Needless to say, as the profits increased, the corporations did not increase their workers pay at the same rates, thus further stratifying the classes.

Essentially, Congress was trying to enforce the Civil War Amendments, (13th, 14th, 15th,) with more detailed language referring to specific places. However, upper echelon whites lawyers in five different states decided to challenge the statute on grounds that the Act did not limit a state action, as it should, but limited private actions of individuals instead. Thus, the Civil Rights Cases were argued before the upper echelon white justices of the Supreme Court. Not surprisingly, the Court's majority stated that the acts of individuals cannot be construed as imposing slavery upon freedmen, and further, that "there must be some stage in the process of his [the freedman] elevation when he takes the rank of a mere citizen, and ceases to be the special favorite of the laws" (Belknap, 59.) Somehow, the Court found a technicality, which today looks fairly unstable, with which to invalidate the Act. Undoubtedly, the interests of those protesting the Act, white-collar and white-skinned lawyers, found an audience with the white collar lawyers of the Court. This decision hurt the blacks chances of legal equality, while at the

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Approximate Word count = 2374
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)