White primaries were primary elections in the Southern States of the United States of America in which any non-White voter was prohibited from participating. White primaries were found in many Southern States after 1890 about until 1944. The United States Supreme Court initially held that the white primary was constitutional, but only nine years later, decided that the white primary did violate the Constitution. There had been no change in the text of the United States Constitution in the interim. The abrupt reversal of course by the Supreme Court led a dissenting Justice to remark that a decision like Smith v. Allwright "tends to bring adjudications of this tribunal into the same class as a restricted railroad ticket, good for this day and train only."