Plessy Vs Ferguson Essay

Tragedy on live television. That is what transpired on the day that the Space Shuttle Challenger ended it short-lived journey towards the cosmos, exploding only a minute into the trip and killing all seven crew members aboard. This occurred in 1986, snapping Americans out of their awe-filled trances and staining the space exploration program for years to come. As many know, the Challenger disaster was entirely preventable. Post-event diagnostic teams concluded that the spacecraft’s o-rings, which were necessary for critical sealing properties, failed due to the cold weather of the night prior. Before the voyage, officials from Morton-Thiokol (the engineering contractor assigned to the launch) claimed that the forecasted lower temperatures would …show more content…
Slow-burning injustices can also be products of over-opinionation. Plessy v. Ferguson was a 1896 United States Supreme Court case that re-enforced the claimed constitutionality of “separate but equal” racial segregation ("Racial Segregation in Post-Reconstruction America”). Like all Supreme Court cases, Plessy’s ruling was orchestrated by the whim of a mere nine people. The experiences, morals, and beliefs of each justice played a factor in the outcome of the case—which is a problematic truth. Legal scholar Larry Kramer concurs that undue trust in a justice’s subjective reasoning is illogical. “The idea that the justices have final say over the meaning of our Constitution,” he states, “ought to offend anyone who believes in democratic government” (Kramer). The Supreme Court is an institution that extols subjectivity as an end-all-be-all; It is founded on the weak, ever-shifting basis of fluid opinions and political environments. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the justices’ flimsy interpretations were wielded as an oppressive tool against black Americans, advancing Jim Crow laws and validating devout segregationists. A system requiring abstract, opinionated means is inexcusably corrupt and imperfect. Subjectivity reveals itself as the major inadequacy of mankind through its evident lack of accuracy and regrettably unstable

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