## Facts

- Lloyd L. Gaines, a Black Missouri resident and graduate of Lincoln University, applied in 1935 to the University of Missouri School of Law, the state’s public law school.
- University officials denied admission solely because of race under Missouri’s segregated public-education policies.
- Missouri provided in-state legal education for white students at the University of Missouri but had no in-state law school for Black students; Lincoln University had no law department.
- Missouri law authorized state-supported arrangements to pay tuition for Black students to attend out-of-state law schools that admitted Black students, and it contemplated establishing professional programs at Lincoln University when deemed “necessary and practicable.”
- Gaines sought a writ of mandamus in Missouri state court to compel his admission; the trial court denied relief, and the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed, accepting the out-of-state tuition option as sufficient.
- The U.S. Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether Missouri violated the Equal Protection Clause by denying a qualified Black applicant admission to its in-state public law school while offering to pay for out-of-state legal education instead.
2. Whether anticipated future creation of an in-state law school for Black students could satisfy equal protection in the present.
3. Whether the denial of admission by university officials constituted state action under the Fourteenth Amendment.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Missouri Supreme Court and remanded.
- The Court held that the denial of admission by university officials implementing state educational policy was state action subject to the Fourteenth Amendment.
- The Court held that Missouri’s provision of in-state legal education for white students, coupled with the absence of comparable in-state legal education for Black students, was unconstitutional discrimination.
- The Court rejected Missouri’s out-of-state tuition arrangement as an adequate substitute for equal in-state opportunity.
- The Court held that a contingent plan to establish a Black law school in the future did not cure the present constitutional violation.

## Legal Principles

- When a state provides a public professional education to white residents, it must provide substantially equal educational opportunities to Black residents.
- Equal protection is assessed by the opportunities the state itself provides; a state cannot discharge its duty by relying on educational opportunities in other states.
- A promised or discretionary future program does not satisfy the state’s current obligation to furnish equal protection.
- Actions of public university officials implementing state educational policy constitute state action for Fourteenth Amendment purposes.

## Conclusion

The Court required Missouri to meet its equal-protection obligation through substantially equal in-state legal-education opportunities and held that paying for Black students to attend out-of-state law schools, or relying on future plans, did not satisfy the Constitution.


Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938)