Date Created:
Place Created: Jackson County, Texas
Year Created: 1954
Historical Theme:
Description: The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Hernandez v. Texas on May 3, 1954, held that Mexican Americans and other nationality groups are entitled to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, striking down the systematic exclusion of them from jury service. The ruling marked the first time the Court recognized that the Amendment’s protections extend beyond the traditional black‑white racial paradigm to include other distinct “classes” subjected to discrimination.
Categories of Documents:
HERNANDEZ v. TEXAS
CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS
No. 406. Argued January 11, 1954.—Decided May 3, 1954.
Syllabus
The systematic exclusion of persons of Mexican descent from service as jury commissioners, grand jurors, and petit jurors in the Texas county in which petitioner was indicted and tried for murder, although there were a substantial number of such persons in the county fully qualified to serve, deprived petitioner, a person of Mexican descent, of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and his conviction in a state court is reversed. (pp. 476–482)
(a) The constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws is not directed solely against discrimination between whites and Negroes. (pp. 477–478)
(b) When the existence of a distinct class is demonstrated, and it is shown that the laws, as written or as applied, single out that class for different treatment not based on some reasonable classification, the guarantees of the Constitution have been violated. (p. 478)
(c) The exclusion of otherwise eligible persons from jury service solely because of their ancestry or national origin is discrimination prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment. (pp. 478–479)
(d) The evidence in this case was sufficient to prove that, in the county in question, persons of Mexican descent constitute a separate class, distinct from "whites." (pp. 479–480)
(e) A prima facie case of denial of the equal protection of the laws was established by evidence that there were in the county a substantial number of persons of Mexican descent with the qualifications required for jury service but that none of them had served on a jury commission, grand jury or petit jury for 25 years. (pp. 480–481)
(f) The testimony of five jury commissioners that they had not discriminated against persons of Mexican descent in selecting jurors, and that their only objective had been to select those whom they thought best qualified, was not enough to overcome petitioner’s prima facie case. (pp. 481–482)
(g) Petitioner had the constitutional right to be indicted and tried by juries from which all members of his class were not systematically excluded. (p. 482)
— Tex. Cr. R. —, 251 S.W.2d 531, reversed.
Web Address:
Jackson County, Texas