Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States

Case Overview

Unanimously upheld Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as applied to a motel that served interstate travelers, holding the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to prohibit racial discrimination in public accommodations. The decision that put the 1964 Act on a commerce footing after the Civil Rights Cases had closed the Fourteenth Amendment route, and the baseline against which Lopez and Morrison are read.