Over the years, we’ve had class action lawsuits that have changed things for everyone, not just the people directly affected. They’ve led to safer products, better rules, and even billions of dollars in settlements.
If you’re interested in learning more about how these cases work, you can visit https://lawsuits.com/ for more info.
But before that, let’s dive into four class action lawsuits that really made a symbolic impact in the US.
1. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The Brown v. Board of Education case is one of the most significant class action lawsuits in US history because it changed the way schools worked, especially when it came to segregation.
Before this, schools were separated by race, with Black kids and white kids going to different schools. This was allowed because of an old ruling in 1896 called Plessy v. Ferguson, which said it was okay as long as the schools were “equal.” But in reality, the schools for Black kids were usually much worse.
In 1951, a dad named Oliver Brown filed a lawsuit because his daughter, Linda, wasn’t allowed to go to a white-only school in Topeka, Kansas. This case became part of a bigger class action lawsuits with other similar cases from different states. A lawyer named Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first Black Supreme Court justice, helped lead the case.
Brown argued that the “separate but equal” rule didn’t work because the schools weren’t actually equal. The schools for Black kids were crowded, underfunded, and much worse than the white schools. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and on May 17, 1954, they ruled in favor of Brown and made segregation in schools illegal.
2. Volkswagen Emissions Scandal
The Volkswagen emissions scandal, also called Dieselgate, is one of the biggest car company lawsuits ever. It all started when the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) found out that Volkswagen had been cheating on emissions tests.
They programmed their cars to only pass the tests, but when people actually drove them, the cars were letting out 40 times more pollution than they were supposed to.
This led to a huge lawsuit, with Volkswagen agreeing to pay $14.7 billion in a settlement. That money went to buying back the affected cars from owners and giving extra cash to people who were hurt by the pollution.
3. The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes
The Scopes Monkey Trial, officially The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, all started in 1925 when Tennessee passed a law called the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach about evolution in schools. The law only allowed teachers to teach that humans were created by God, according to the Bible.
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) disagreed with the law and decided to challenge it. They sought someone who would intentionally teach evolution, even though it was against the law. John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, stepped up and agreed to teach evolution in his class, which led to his arrest and trial.
The trial was huge, and it brought in some big-name lawyers, such as Clarence Darrow, who was defending Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan, a former US Secretary of State, who argued against it. Scopes lost the trial, but it made people start thinking more about evolution and how science and education should be handled in schools.
Even though Scopes was found guilty, this trial helped change the way people saw science in education. The Butler Act wasn’t repealed until 1967 in Tennessee, and it took another legal challenge in 1968 to get it removed everywhere.
4. The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
Back in 1998, 46 states joined forces with the five biggest cigarette companies to settle a case aimed at reducing smoking, especially among young people. This agreement brought some serious changes to how tobacco companies did business.
For one, the companies had to make their internal documents public, so people could see what was really going on behind the scenes. They also agreed to stop targeting kids with their ads and to pay $206 billion over 25 years to help cover the health costs caused by smoking.
Also, they helped fund programs to teach people about the dangers of smoking and stop young people from getting addicted.
