In the case of Gilmore et al. v. City of Montgomery, Alabama et al., 1973, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a city could not close its parks and recreational facilities to avoid integration as it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs were African American residents who sued after public facilities in Montgomery were closed following desegregation orders from federal courts. The city argued that they had no obligation to provide these services and thus could shut them down if they chose to do so; however, this was seen as an attempt to circumvent desegregation laws by closing public spaces rather than integrating them. The court held that such actions perpetuated racial discrimination and therefore contravened constitutional rights for equal protection under law regardless of race or color.

In the dissenting opinion for Gilmore et al. v. City of Montgomery, Alabama, Justice William O. Douglas argued that the majority's decision to allow racially segregated private schools to use public facilities was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He contended that by permitting these institutions access to public resources, it indirectly endorsed and facilitated racial segregation in education which is unconstitutional as per previous Supreme Court rulings such as Brown v Board of Education (1954). Furthermore, he expressed concern over how this ruling could potentially encourage other forms of state-supported discrimination if left unchecked.