"In each generation, a handful of Supreme Court decisions crystallize the problems and tensions in American constitutional theory and raise crucial questions about the proper role of the courts in interpreting the Constitution in a democracy. Brown v. Board of Education was such a case for the generation of the 1950s and 1960s. Roe v. Wade has proven to be the key case for the generation of scholars that came afterward. Brown and Roe differ in many respects, but perhaps the most important difference is the degree of public acceptance each has enjoyed. Like Roe v. Wade, Brown v. Board of Education was hotly contested in the first few years after it was decided. For a decade or more, the legitimacy of Brown was bitterly disputed in the South. However, ten years after the decision, Congress ratified the result in Brown in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The success of the Civil Rights Movement altered the racial attitudes of most Americans. In the years that followed, Brown was transformed from a flashpoint of controversy into a hallowed icon that symbolized Americans’ aspirations toward equality and human rights. In subsequent controversies over busing, affirmative action, and the expansion of civil rights to women and gays, people no longer disputed whether Brown v. Board of Education was correct. Rather, different groups of Americans, both liberal and conservative, attempted to seize the mantle of Brown for themselves, arguing that they were the true adherents of Brown and that their opponents were distorting its meaning for political ends. The political debate was framed within the parameters set by Brown, rather than as a debate over the legitimacy of Brown itself. The story of Roe v. wade would be very different. No Civil Rights Act of 1983 ratified the result in Roe ten years after the case was decided. The second wave of American feminism did change American attitudes about gender equality. But Roe v. Wade also energized conservative and religious social movements that were deeply hostile to the decision. These social movements became important features of contemporary politics and helped produce the American party system as we know it today."