Thurgood Marshall saw litigation as a means to enact social reforms and advance equal justice for US citizens. He cited the law’s “capacity to initiate change and its flexibility to accept and mold change” as vital, breaking with the historical tradition of wielding the courts primarily to clarify or modify existing laws. This vision was realized in Marshall’s successful arguing of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case before the US Supreme Court, as the court’s decision to overturn the long-standing “separate but equal” doctrine revolutionized how the legal system regarded civil rights.
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easyBased on the text, how did Marshall’s Brown v. Board of Education case most likely influence the US legal system’s approach to civil rights?
A
It promoted the idea that legal action is the most efficient way to create social change.
B
It established that the courts could be used as a tool for significant social change.
C
It led courts to focus more on clarifying existing civil rights laws than on making modifications to them.
D
It inadvertently resulted in the courts taking a more cautious, incremental approach to advancing subsequent civil rights cases.