In the 1970 case of Palmer et al. v. Thompson, Mayor of the City of Jackson, et al., a group of African American residents in Jackson, Mississippi sued city officials for closing public pools rather than integrating them following desegregation laws. The plaintiffs argued that this action violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under law and due process. However, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendants with a 5-4 decision stating that there was no constitutional violation because all citizens were equally denied access to public swimming facilities regardless of race or color; hence it did not infringe on equal protection clause nor due process clause as claimed by plaintiffs. Furthermore, they stated that while motives behind actions can be scrutinized for constitutionality issues, courts cannot force local governments to provide services like public pools if they choose not to do so.

In the dissenting opinion for Palmer et al. v. Thompson, Justice William O. Douglas argued that closing public pools rather than integrating them was a clear violation of equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. He pointed out that such actions were taken solely to avoid racial integration and thus constituted discrimination based on race, which is unconstitutional in any form or guise according to Supreme Court precedents like Brown v Board of Education (1954). Furthermore, he criticized the majority's reliance on local control over municipal services as an excuse for allowing racially discriminatory practices to persist unchallenged by federal law enforcement authorities.