WI: Brown v. Board of Education was not unanimous decision

Obviously the court would've never ruled the other way since most justices personally didn't approve of segregation, but it could have been possible for a couple justices to dissent. If they ruled that public school segregation was unconstitutional by a vote of 7 to 2 how would this impact how Southerners resisted the desegregation of their schools?
 
now, on the other side of the coin, a 7-2 decision may have called for desegregation the beginning of the 1954 school year, before southern resistance became so entrenched and such a political selling point.

I have read that one line of thought is that former governor and Chief Justice Earl Warren gave up too much in getting a majority decision.
 
the conventional wisdom talks about an initial Brown I decision and a later Brown II which delayed implementation,

but the above line of thinking takes the view that even the initial Brown decision which came down on May 17, 1954, watered down implementation too much.
 
Would a split keep the issue alive, maybe later cases trying to get Brown overturned and segregation reinstated?
I believe that was one of the reasons Warren pushed so hard to make sure the decision WAS unanimous. Anything less would make people too likely to try to challenge it on various technicalities. Whereas the unanimous verdict of OTL sent the message "this is not being overturned."
 
Top