How Does The Supreme Court Affect Social Change

After the Supreme Court was established pursuant to Article Three of the United States Constitution in 1789, the extent to which the Supreme Court can affect social change has always been disputable. Scholars developed different definitions of social change and looked in different fields to discuss the Court's effect. Expanding on their ideas, I argue that the Court is successful in generating attention from society to the cases it decides on, yet it takes time for changes in public opinion and implementing the rulings. Focusing on three significant cases decided by the Court— Brown v. Board of Education (Brown) in 1954, Roe v. Wade (Roe) in 1973, and Obergefell v. Hodges (Obergefell) in 2015, and drawing together and analyzing data and
Increasing in concentration of the articles includes the increase in the number of articles, getting the articles more significant places in the newspapers, and increase in the length of the articles. These suggests more exposure of an issue to the public, which further implies more public awareness of the issue. Shifting in language siding with the Court's opinion takes a closer look at what is exactly going to be reported. As the focus of the issue sides with the Court, the public will be aware of and have a greater chance to accept the Court's opinion. The effective change should happen in nation wide, or in big regional presses, because only the big presses have the possibility to let the articles be read to a huge amount of public. Also, the change in press coverage should happen immediately. The news are supposed to be new, daily reporting on social trends, so a change in press coverage due to a Court's ruling should happen immediately after the Court's
After Brown was decided, the New York Times assigned fifty staff members to cover the story, and they produced seven pages of information related to the ruling immediately after Brown was decided (Klarman, 2004, p. 364). It even trained their news reporters to help them better with reporting Brown in 1955 (Rosenberg, 2008, p. 112). The New York Times is one of the most prestigious presses across the nation, with millions of readers every day. As the New York Times deemed Brown so salient that needs fifty staffs and even extra training—it really put Brown to a significant social trend that attracted public attention. Seven pages is an unusual length as well. No matter what was written in the seven pages, it was easy for the readers to be aware of the civil rights issue. What is more, other major newspapers put effort into making Brown salient as well. Press heralded the decision in front page, banner headlines the day after the decision of Brown (Klarman, 2004, p. 364). Front page is most easily read in newspapers. Putting Brown in the front page and banner headlines indicates more awareness among the readers. Moreover, prestigious national magazines like Newsweek, Time, and the New Republic contained more civil rights articles in 1956 and 1957 than in the years prior to Brown (Rosenberg, 1991, p. 115). The increase in the number