The U.S. Supreme Court enabled which government practices to continue in its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson?

The ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 was a pivotal decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the "separate but equal" doctrine. This case arose when Homer Plessy, an African American man, was arrested for sitting in a "whites-only" train car. The Court ruled that segregation did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as long as the separate facilities for the segregated groups were equal in quality.

Thus, the correct answer focuses on the continuation of practices that involved the segregation of public facilities, which included schools, transportation, and various public spaces. This legal endorsement allowed for widespread racial discrimination and the institutionalization of Jim Crow laws across the United States, persisting until the later civil rights movement and further judicial challenges in the mid-20th century. The other options pertain to different legal and social issues that were not influenced by this particular ruling.