The decisions issued by the Supreme Court in the late 1800s produced the foundation for the development of democratic principles based on which the current American legal system was developed. Therefore, taking retrospect into the nature of these decisions to grasp their weight for American society is essential. The law that allowed curbing the number of legal issues in the railroad industry regulated by the ICC should also be mentioned among the essential changes that were made to the legislation and the social environment. In addition, the Civil Service Act of 1883 also contributed to the promotion of democratic standards within American society. The regulation established a threshold for a position in the government so that candidates should be selected based on their personal and professional merit, thus preventing fraud cases from taking place in the political system.
The changes described above helped to shape the principal ideas that supported the notion of democracy and propagated the philosophy rooted in the support and recognition of human rights. Moreover, the newly established regulations contributed to developing the concept of economic power balance that would afterward lay the foundation for the American economy to develop: “For a minority of workers, the rapidly expanding industrial system created new forms of freedom.” Arguably, the focus on governmental regulation of the market did not quite coincide with the idea of free economic relationships that would develop afterward. Yet, the cornerstone values that would become the principal standards for economic interactions were designed with the Supreme Court’s decisions. Therefore, the significance of the decisions that the Supreme Court made at the time was immense.