This commentary originally aired on December 30, 2014. The meaning of the words justice served relies on the social, political and legal contexts in which it is applied. Two 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court cases reflect how the Court’s decisions can be swayed by contemporary racial politics. In its 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, the Court declared that African Americans could not sue for freedom in federal court because they were not considered citizens. This decision reversed 28 years of