Ex Parte Virginia

Here in March 1879, a federal marshal arrested James Coles, Pittsylvania County judge, on charges that he had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1875 by refusing to seat Black men on juries. Coles and the Commonwealth of Virginia petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for his release, arguing that Congress had no authority to regulate state juries. Denying the petition, the court ruled in Ex Parte Virginia (1880) that the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution empowered Congress to enforce the right of Black citizens to serve on juries. The ruling, though often disregarded in subsequent decades, demonstrated the broad promise of the 14th amendment to protect the civil rights of all Americans.