In the case of Conner v. Butler et al., 1959, the United States Supreme Court was asked to consider whether a state law that allowed for racial segregation in public transportation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiff, an African American woman named Sarah Mae Flemming (née Connor), had been forcibly removed from a bus in South Carolina after she refused to give up her seat and move to the back as required by local segregation laws. She sued both Ed Robinson, who owned and operated Capital Transit Company which ran Columbia's city buses; and John W. Butler Jr., its driver at that time. The court ruled unanimously in favor of Flemming, stating that such laws were indeed unconstitutional because they denied individuals equal protection under the law based on their race. This decision effectively ended legal racial segregation on public transportation not only in South Carolina but across all states.

The dissenting opinion in the case of CONNER v. BUTLER et al., 1959, argued that the majority's decision to uphold a state law requiring racial segregation in public transportation was inconsistent with previous Supreme Court rulings and violated constitutional principles. The dissenters believed that this ruling contradicted earlier decisions which had struck down similar laws as unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. They also contended that by upholding such a discriminatory law, the court was effectively endorsing racial discrimination and undermining efforts towards achieving equality for all citizens regardless of race or color. Furthermore, they expressed concern about potential implications for other areas of public life where segregation could be enforced based on this precedent.