Plessy was brought before judge John H. Ferguson of the criminal court for New Orleans, the case was HomerA. Plessy v. State of Louisiana. He was charge with violating the Separate Car Act and Plessy defended his action by saying that the Separate Car Act violated his constitutional rights, specifically, the Thirteen and the Fourteen Amendment, which provided for equal treatment under the law. At the end he was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of $25.
Homer Plessy did not pay the fine, he filled a petition to theSupreme Court of Louisiana which upheld the previous Ferguson's decision.
Then his case was brought before the US Supreme Court on April 13, 1896 as Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson. By a 7-1 vote, the Court said thata state law that "impliesmerely a legal distinction" between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment. The Court avoided discussion of the protection granted by the Fourteenth Amendment. The only dissenter was a former slave owner Justice John Marshall, he denied that a Legislature could differentiate on the basis of races with regard to civil rights.