Full case name Norris v. Alabama Date 1935 | Citations 294 U.S. 587 (more) | |
Majority Hughes, joined by Van Devanter, Cardozo, Brandeis, Butler, Sutherland, Roberts, Stone (McReynolds did not participate) | ||
Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587 (1935), was one of the cases decided by the United States Supreme Court that arose out of the trial of the Scottsboro Boys. The Supreme Court held that the systematic exclusion of African Americans from jury service violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case was a significant advance in the Supreme Court's criminal procedure jurisprudence. Building on the existing precedent of Strauder v. West Virginia (1880) and Neal v. Delaware (1882), the Supreme Court addressed an Alabama statute that was facially neutral, but held that a criminal defendant could establish a prima facie claim of discrimination by showing that a substantial number of blacks live in a community and that blacks have been excluded from serving on juries.