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If you could choose a famous case that has changed your life, what would it be? According to many experts, the cases most reflective of impact and final change deal with morality.
Cases involving the absolution of slavery include Dred v. Sandford, Butler v. Perry; Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co and Memphis v. Green. Each of these cases in turn, stood on the back of the earlier case or feeling of change that was needed. The case of Dred v. Sandford in 1856, which stated that a slave moving to a free slave state was still not free, yet paved the way for future success and final victory on the slave issue.
In Brown v. Board of Education the issue is desegregation. Linda Brown and her associates were not allowed to attend a white school. Their case won for violations of the fourteenth amendment and its accompanying Equal Protection Clause.
In Roe v. Wade, the issue was abortion; the woman, Jane Roe, wanted the law changed on abortion being a felony. Unless the health of the mother was at stake the felony was secure, only, this time, Roe won out because of an already in place constitutional right to privacy. This law is still being fought in court today.
Famous cases are famous for a reason. They force us to take a look at who we’ve been and who we’d like to become. They make us question choices of the past, and hopefully, to make better choices for our future.