Editing Fifth Circuit Four (section)

== History ==
In their most famous cases, they were opposed by fellow Fifth Circuit judge [[Benjamin Franklin Cameron|Ben Cameron]], an avowed [[White supremacy|white supremacist]]. At that time, the Fifth Circuit included not only [[Louisiana]], [[Mississippi]], and [[Texas]] (the limits of its jurisdiction since October 1, 1981), but also [[Alabama]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Florida]], and the [[Panama Canal Zone]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Bass |first=Jack |date=2004-04-15 |title=The 'Fifth Circuit Four' |language=en-US |work=The Nation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/fifth-circuit-four/ |access-date=2023-04-13 |issn=0027-8378}}</ref> 

"The Four" were [[Richard Rives|Richard T. Rives]], [[Elbert Tuttle|Elbert Parr Tuttle]] (who served as Chief Judge from 1960-67), [[John Robert Brown (judge)|John R. Brown]] (who succeeded Tuttle as Chief Judge), and [[John Minor Wisdom]]. All but Rives were [[political liberalism|liberal]] [[United States Republican Party|Republicans]]; Rives was a [[United States Democratic Party|Democrat]] and friend of [[United States Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] justice [[Hugo Black]].<ref name=":0" />

The jurisprudence of the group led to expansion of the rights granted in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' to other areas of society, such as employment, integration, and voting rights.<ref name=":0" /> Since Brown did not specify the mechanisms for desegregation, it was crucial that lower federal courts such as the Fifth Circuit expanded civil rights law. In several court cases, such as ''[[Louisiana v. United States (1965)|Louisiana v. United States]]'', the court struck down "race neutral" laws that functionally denied African Americans their rights due to unequal application. In response, the judges faced major backlash from their communities, who were largely against integration and civil rights for African Americans. The judges received many phone threats and had their personal property destroyed or vandalized.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Grinstein |first=Max |date=2020 |title=The Fifth Circuit Four: The Unheralded Judges Who Helped to Break Legal Barriers in the Deep South |url=https://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/pdfs/N20_Grinstein.pdf |journal=Society for History Education}}</ref>