Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn is catching heat over a recent tweet that some took to imply he wanted to overturn desegregation.
Following the Supreme Court's landmark decision to overturn abortion protections established by Roe v. Wade, Cornyn tweeted, "Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education." Plessy was a court case that allowed for the constitutionality of 'separate by equal,' while Ferguson later desegregated schools.
Cornyn's comment came in response to a tweet by former president Barack Obama, denouncing the Supreme Court's decision.
"Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans," Obama wrote.
Cornyn's tweet went viral, with many commenters assuming he was implying Brown, which declared "separate but equal" segregation in schools unconstitutional, should now be overturned.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 that partially overruled its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which allowed for racial segregation so long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality.
Cornyn later clarified in a second tweet: "Thank goodness some SCOTUS precedents are overruled." But his comparison of racial segregation to abortion rights didn't sit well with many on social media, who continued to blast him.
The senator didn't say anything else about the matter, though he retweeted supporters who came to his defense, explaining that he was pointing out "bad opinions like Plessy should be overturned" and that, "something being precedent for 50 years doesn't really have anything to do with it being correctly decided."
Cornyn also tweeted "#dullknife" in response to one commenter who speculated the senator wants schools segregated again.
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