In the case of Avent et al. v. North Carolina, 1962, the appellants were convicted for trespassing after they refused to leave a privately-owned bus terminal's restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina when asked by an employee due to their race. The Supreme Court ruled that since the facilities were used by interstate travelers and thus subject to federal regulation under Congress' Commerce Clause powers, discrimination based on race was not permissible even if it occurred at a private establishment. Therefore, this case extended civil rights protections against racial discrimination into privately owned public accommodations involved in interstate commerce.

In the dissenting opinion for Avent et al. v. North Carolina, the justice argued that there was a violation of due process in this case as it involved racial discrimination during jury selection. The justice believed that African Americans were systematically excluded from serving on juries and this practice denied defendants their constitutional right to an impartial jury trial by peers without regard to race or color. The state's argument that these exclusions were coincidental did not hold water with the dissenting justice who pointed out statistical evidence showing otherwise, thus indicating intentional discrimination against black citizens in jury service which is unconstitutional under Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.