In the Bailey v. Patterson case of 1961, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public transportation was unconstitutional. The case originated from Jackson, Mississippi where African American citizens were denied access to bus and railway station facilities due to their race. They filed a lawsuit against city officials arguing this violated their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment which guarantees equal protection under law regardless of race or color. The lower courts initially dismissed their claims but on appeal, the Supreme Court reversed these decisions stating that any form of racial segregation imposed by state action is constitutionally impermissible and thus unlawful. This ruling reinforced previous landmark rulings such as Brown v Board of Education (1954) which had declared racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional.

In the dissenting opinion for Bailey et al. v. Patterson et al., Justice Harlan argued that the Supreme Court should not have decided on this case, as it was still being processed in lower courts and thus had not yet exhausted all possible legal remedies at those levels. He believed that by intervening prematurely, the Supreme Court overstepped its jurisdictional bounds and disrupted proper judicial procedure. Furthermore, he expressed concern about how this decision might set a precedent for future cases where parties could bypass lower court proceedings to seek immediate relief from higher courts without sufficient cause or justification. This approach would undermine the authority of local courts and disrupt established hierarchies within the justice system.