In the 1949 case of South et al. v. Peters, Chairman of the Georgia State Democratic Executive Committee, et al., a group of African American citizens from Georgia challenged their exclusion from participating in primary elections by the state's Democratic Party on racial grounds. The petitioners argued that this practice violated their Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under law and non-discrimination based on race in voting respectively. However, the Supreme Court dismissed their appeal for lack of jurisdiction without providing an opinion or explanation for its decision. This dismissal effectively upheld lower court rulings which had found that political parties were private entities not subject to constitutional restrictions regarding discrimination.

In the dissenting opinion for South et al. v. Peters, Justice Robert H. Jackson argued that the majority's decision to dismiss the case was a mistake and an evasion of responsibility by the Supreme Court. He contended that it is not only within their jurisdiction but also their duty to hear cases involving allegations of racial discrimination in primary elections, as these directly affect citizens' constitutional rights under the Fifteenth Amendment. According to him, dismissing such cases on technical grounds like 'political question doctrine' or lack of federal jurisdiction undermines democracy and perpetuates racial injustice by allowing discriminatory practices at state level without any possibility of redress at federal level.