Supreme Court decisions of far-reaching consequences have often been accompanied by impassioned dissents. Examples abound, such as Justice Harlan Stone’s dissent when the court held a processing tax under the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional, declaiming, “Courts are not the only agency of government that must be assumed to have the capacity to govern.” (U.S. v. Butler, 297 U.S. 1, 87 (1936))

Lee A. Spielmann, assistant regional counsel with the Environmental Protection Agency

Undoubtedly the most famous dissent in American history occurred when the first Justice John Harlan condemned Plessy v. Ferguson sanctioning the “separate but equal” doctrine (“in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens….Our constitution is colorblind….”).

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