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“The majority held that you cannot parse a state regulation and say that it’s having to do mostly with morals as opposed to protection for the citizens of the state,” says Harold Krent, law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. “So that distinction that was forwarded by the pork producers was clearly rejected by a majority of the court, which is the controversial aspect of the decision because it does then open up other states to enact morals legislation which has an impact on out-of-state commerce.”

“Legal change does not make change on the ground, does not make social change. This is the lesson of history, certainly in the case of race relations,” says Christopher Schmidt, a professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law and author of “The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era.” “But what we need, and what the sit-ins show us, is that when we have legal change in conjunction with social protest, then you can actually get changes on the ground.”

“Causation is links in a chain, and that’s a very long chain,” says Doug Godfrey, professor of legal writing and research at Chicago-Kent College of Law. “There’s also intervening causes, which can break the chain. I’m sure the defense can point to many other things or people that may have contributed.”