Writing for a unanimous Court, Chief Justice Earl Warren held that the segregation of public schools in Washington, D.C. violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Warren explained that while the Fifth Amendment does not contain an Equal Protection Clause like the Fourteenth Amendment, “the concepts of equal protection and due process, both stemming from our American ideal of fairness, are not mutually exclusive.” Furthermore, he wrote that “[t]he ‘equal protection of the laws’ is a more explicit safeguard of prohibited unfairness than ‘due process of law,’ and, therefore, we do not imply that the two are always interchangeable phrases. But, as this Court has recognized, discrimination may be so unjustifiable as to be violative of due process.”

On the idea of “liberty” under the Fifth Amendment, Warren explained that it “extends to the full range of conduct which the individual is free to pursue, and it cannot be restricted except for a proper governmental objective.” He noted that classifications based only on race “must be scrutinized with particular care, since they are contrary to our traditions and hence constitutionally suspect.” Under this reasoning, Warren examined the discrimination taking place in Washington, D.C.’s public schools. Ultimately, Warren found that segregation in public schools in not reasonably related to any proper government interest and therefore results in the “arbitrary deprivation” of liberty of minority children.