landmark decision
Case that matters
A landmark decision is a court ruling that establishes a significant new legal principle or dramatically changes the interpretation of existing law.
Such decisions typically come from supreme or appellate courts and become touchstones for future cases.
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark decision that ended legal segregation in American schools.
The term extends beyond law to describe any pivotal choice that fundamentally alters a course of action.
- rulingFormal legal determination
- precedentPrior authoritative example
- verdictOfficial court decision
- historicOf lasting significance
- Supreme CourtNation's top tribunal
high court · gavel · constitutional · judicial review · groundbreaking · justices · Brown v Board · majority opinion · dissent · watershed · legal · overturned · upheld · civil rights · equal protection · due process · monumental · legal history
- legal termstrial, legal, appeal, lawsuit, law
- legal interpretationoriginalism, plain meaning, textualism, historical interpretation, literal interpretation