Also landmark decision. The court decision, which is published by an appeals court or by the Supreme Court, on some serious or important matter to a large number of people. A landmark case, once decided shows the usual way in which the court will rule on such issues in the future, and sometimes sets how lower courts must rule in the case of the same or a similar matter coming before them. Sometimes referred to as a precedent setting case.

See Also: Civil Rights Rulings (Circa 1960's), Important Landmark Cases in Educational Law, Sex-related court cases.

In the United States, the most famous landmark case is the decision in Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973)*, in which it was ruled that a woman has a right to obtain an abortion during the first trimester 3 months of pregnancy and that laws prohbiting this are unconstitutional.

Other landmark cases include:


* Click here to understand what those numbers mean
Northwestern University has a list called Supreme Court's Greatest Hits and includes some of the following as others were also added (Citations/corrections added in bold by me):