Brown v. Board of Education addressed which constitutional clause?

• A. Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
• B. Supremacy Clause
• C. Commerce Clause
• D. Due Process Clause

Answer: (A)

This question tests understanding of which constitutional provision Brown v. Board of Education relied on. The Court ruled that state laws creating separate public schools for Black and white students violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because segregation produced inherently unequal educational environments. This decision explicitly rejected the idea that “separate but equal” facilities could be truly equal, overturning the earlier Plessy v. Ferguson framework. The Supremacy Clause is about federal over state law in general, not the constitutional basis for striking down school segregation. The Commerce Clause governs trade among states, and the Due Process Clause concerns fair procedures and certain fundamental rights, but Brown’s reasoning centers on equal protection.