In the Grovey v. Townsend case of 1934, the U.S Supreme Court upheld a Texas statute that authorized white-only primaries conducted by private organizations. The plaintiff, R.R. Grovey, an African American man was denied a ballot in a Democratic primary election due to his race and sued on grounds of racial discrimination violating his Fourteenth Amendment rights. However, the court ruled unanimously against him stating that since political parties were private entities they could establish their own rules for membership including excluding non-whites from voting in their primaries. This decision effectively endorsed segregation within political processes and allowed discriminatory practices to continue unchecked until it was later overturned by Smith v Allwright (1944).

In the dissenting opinion for Grovey v. Townsend, Justice Benjamin Cardozo expressed his disagreement with the majority's decision to uphold Texas' white primaries law. He argued that this law was a clear violation of the 15th Amendment, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting rights. According to him, by allowing political parties to exclude African Americans from participating in primary elections, Texas effectively denied them their constitutional right to vote since these primaries often determined the outcome of general elections. He further contended that political parties were not private entities but public ones due to their significant role in electoral processes and should therefore be subject to federal laws prohibiting racial discrimination. Thus, he believed that it was unconstitutional for states like Texas to permit such discriminatory practices within these organizations.