In the case of Robinson et al. v. Florida in 1963, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a matter concerning racial discrimination in jury selection. The appellants, two African American men convicted for robbery by an all-white jury, argued that their Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated due to systematic exclusion of black people from juries in Duval County where they were tried and convicted. They presented statistical evidence showing underrepresentation of blacks on juries over several years compared to their proportion in population. The State countered arguing that there was no intentional discrimination but rather it was due to lack of responses from black individuals during the juror selection process or because many did not meet qualifications such as literacy requirements. The Supreme Court held that regardless of reasons given by the state, if a pattern of racial disparity is shown over time with respect to jury composition then this constitutes violation against equal protection clause under Fourteenth Amendment unless rebutted convincingly by state authorities which wasn't done here effectively enough according to court's opinion.

In the dissenting opinion for Robinson et al. v. Florida, Justice Harlan disagreed with the majority's decision that a state law requiring segregation in restaurants was unconstitutional due to its conflict with interstate commerce. He argued that this case did not involve interstate commerce as it dealt only with local customers and transactions within a single state, thus falling outside of federal jurisdiction. Furthermore, he contended that even if there were some connection to interstate commerce, it would be too indirect or incidental to justify federal intervention under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. In his view, allowing such broad interpretation could potentially lead to an overreach of federal power into areas traditionally controlled by states' rights.