In the 1963 case of Calhoun et al. v. Latimer et al., the U.S Supreme Court was asked to consider whether a school district in Oklahoma could continue to operate segregated schools, despite previous rulings that declared such segregation unconstitutional. The plaintiffs were African American parents and children who argued that their Fourteenth Amendment rights were being violated by the continued operation of racially segregated schools in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. The defendants included various local school officials who maintained that they had made reasonable efforts towards desegregation but faced significant logistical challenges due to residential segregation patterns within the county. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that "freedom-of-choice" plans for school integration did not absolve districts from their responsibility to eliminate racial discrimination 'root and branch.' This ruling reaffirmed earlier decisions mandating an end to racial segregation in public education (such as Brown v Board of Education) and clarified that these mandates applied even when logistical difficulties arose during implementation.

In the dissenting opinion for Calhoun et al. v. Latimer et al., the justice argued that the Supreme Court should not have taken jurisdiction over this case, as it was a matter of state law rather than federal law. The justice believed that the Oklahoma courts were capable of resolving this dispute about school district boundaries and funding without intervention from the federal judiciary. Furthermore, they contended that by taking on cases like these, which do not involve constitutional issues or significant national interests, the Supreme Court risked becoming overloaded with work and unable to focus on its primary role: interpreting and applying federal laws and constitutionality in disputes between states or involving major national concerns.