<P> Chief Justice Warren's reasoning was broadly criticized by contemporary legal academics with Judge Learned Hand decrying that the Supreme Court had "assumed the role of a third legislative chamber" and Herbert Wechsler finding Brown impossible to justify based on neutral principles . </P> <P> Some aspects of the Brown decision are still debated . Notably, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, himself an African American, wrote in Missouri v. Jenkins (1995) that at the very least, Brown I has been misunderstood by the courts . </P> <P> Brown I did not say that "racially isolated" schools were inherently inferior; the harm that it identified was tied purely to de jure segregation, not de facto segregation . Indeed, Brown I itself did not need to rely upon any psychological or social - science research in order to announce the simple, yet fundamental truth that the Government cannot discriminate among its citizens on the basis of race....</P> <P> Segregation was not unconstitutional because it might have caused psychological feelings of inferiority . Public school systems that separated blacks and provided them with superior educational resources making blacks "feel" superior to whites sent to lesser schools--would violate the Fourteenth Amendment, whether or not the white students felt stigmatized, just as do school systems in which the positions of the races are reversed . Psychological injury or benefit is irrelevant...</P>

Educational segregation in the us prior to brown v board of education