Supreme Court decisions can have a huge impact on American politics and society. For example, in 1896 the Court made a famous decision in the case Plessy v. Ferguson: it was fine to separate people by race in public and private areas, as long as the conditions for both races were equal. The opinion of the Court used the phrase “separate but equal,” which became a popular motto for segregation5 and oppression6 of African Americans across the country for decades to come. Fortunately, the Court made another decision in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, which undid some of the damage. They ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. These cases are just two examples of how decisions made in the Supreme Court can have massive effects on our everyday lives.