again x-posting us centricism

[rkt]

borrowing a bit from badlysocialized

there's something about that 'i have more foreign policy experience than sarah palin' meme that's floated around facebook that unnerves me. because while ms. palin may not have much of an excuse for lacking stamps in her passport, being that she can see russia from her porch, a lot of other people have lacked the privilege to hop around the globe, thereby depriving them of that claim.

but, by now you probably have heard that when asked to discuss a supreme court decision besides roe, gov palin's response was, "um roe?".
or something like that. so how about a more practical challenge?

i don't expect you to necessarily know a whole repertoire of supreme court cases. and i don't think that such knowledge is inherently a sign of anything other than a knowledge of US supreme court cases, except maybe a vested interest in (US) civics.
yet, i'd be willing to bet that most people here could name at least one other court case.
including ones from high school social studies-related classes, hollywood, or recent media (/journal-blog) stories.

so i challenge you to name at least one and give a vague synopsis. repeats are acceptable. this is not a competition. no gold stars for pullng out obscurity for the sake of obscurity, just gold stars all around for particpating, but you can still pat yourself on the back for the less-known.

Comments

[liveavatar.livejournal.com]

The case that's come immediately to my mind is Plessy v Ferguson, which made segregation constitutional. That much I knew without looking up -- what I'd forgotten was that the case was decided in 1896, much further past the Civil War than I'd remembered.

What I didn't know was this (taken from the decision's Wikipedia page):

When summarizing, Justice Brown declared, "We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it."

Classic blame-the-victim, absolutely classic.

[rkt.livejournal.com]

scotus has had a lot of bad calls, but that declaration, damn.

and plessy is a classic that somone who wants to be Number 2 should absolutely remember, if only that it had to do with saying segreation was a-ok.