<P> British barrister and parliamentarian Anthony Lester has written that "Although the Court's opinion in Brown made no reference to these considerations of foreign policy, there is no doubt that they significantly influenced the decision ." </P> <P> In spring 1953, the Court heard the case but was unable to decide the issue and asked to rehear the case in fall 1953, with special attention to whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prohibited the operation of separate public schools for whites and blacks . </P> <P> The Court reargued the case at the behest of Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, who used reargument as a stalling tactic, to allow the Court to gather a consensus around a Brown opinion that would outlaw segregation . The justices in support of desegregation spent much effort convincing those who initially intended to dissent to join a unanimous opinion . Although the legal effect would be same for a majority rather than unanimous decision, it was felt that dissent could be used by segregation supporters as a legitimizing counter-argument . </P> <P> Conference notes and draft decisions illustrate the division of opinions before the decision was issued . Justices Douglas, Black, Burton, and Minton were predisposed to overturn Plessy . Fred M. Vinson noted that Congress had not issued desegregation legislation; Stanley F. Reed discussed incomplete cultural assimilation and states' rights and was inclined to the view that segregation worked to the benefit of the African - American community; Tom C. Clark wrote that "we had led the states on to think segregation is OK and we should let them work it out ." Felix Frankfurter and Robert H. Jackson disapproved of segregation, but were also opposed to judicial activism and expressed concerns about the proposed decision's enforceability . Chief Justice Vinson had been a key stumbling block . After Vinson died in September 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Chief Justice . Warren had supported the integration of Mexican - American students in California school systems following Mendez v. Westminster . However, Eisenhower invited Earl Warren to a White House dinner, where the president told him: "These (southern whites) are not bad people . All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes ." Nevertheless, the Justice Department sided with the African American plaintiffs . </P>

Who defended the five states whose policies were challenged by the naacp in 1954