In the 1962 case Wright et al. v. Georgia, six African American men were convicted under a Georgia state law for "peaceably playing" a game of cards in a private home, which was deemed illegal because they did not have a license to do so and their gathering was considered unlawful assembly. The defendants argued that this conviction violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection and due process under the law as well as First Amendment rights of freedom of association. The U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendants, overturning their convictions on grounds that there had been no clear evidence presented by the State proving that these men posed any clear or present danger to justify an intrusion into their privacy or restriction on their liberty. This ruling reinforced constitutional protections against racial discrimination and arbitrary enforcement of laws.

In the dissenting opinion for Wright et al. v. Georgia, Justice Harlan argued that the majority's decision to overturn convictions of African American citizens who were playing a game of basketball in a public park was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. He contended that there was no evidence presented at trial showing discriminatory enforcement of trespass laws by local authorities against these individuals due to their race, and therefore, it could not be concluded that they were denied equal protection under law as per this clause. Furthermore, he believed that even if such discrimination did occur in other instances within Georgia state or elsewhere across America, it would still not justify reversing these specific convictions unless clear proof existed demonstrating racial bias in this particular case itself.