In Norris v. Alabama, the U.S Supreme Court overturned the convictions of nine African American youths known as the "Scottsboro Boys," who were accused of raping two white women in 1931. The court ruled that their trials had been unfair due to racial discrimination in jury selection. Despite a significant number of eligible black jurors living within Jackson County, Alabama where the trial was held, none had ever served on a jury there because they were systematically excluded from both grand and petit juries by local officials. This exclusion violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under law and due process. Therefore, it was concluded that this practice constituted systemic racial discrimination which invalidated any verdict reached by such biased juries.

In the Norris v. Alabama case, there was no dissenting opinion recorded as the decision of the Supreme Court was unanimous in favor of Clarence Norris. The court ruled that Alabama's systematic exclusion of African Americans from jury service violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to United States Constitution. Therefore, all nine justices agreed with this ruling and none expressed a dissenting view or wrote a separate opinion disagreeing with majority’s conclusion.