A long-term test-case strategy can undermine doctrine without frontal assault.

Evidence

During the early 1930s, when the NAACP began its campaign, Plessy was firmly established, precluding a frontal assault on the “separate but equal” doctrine. But Houston believed that a longterm strategy of undermining segregation could succeed. The Legal Defense Fund began by bringing before the courts particularly egregious denials of equality—not only to combat particular injustices, but also to mobilize support for the NAACP’s fight for racial equality and to inform the judiciary about the evils of segregation. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2958

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: how movement litigators use incremental case selection to shift constitutional doctrine over decades.
• DEFINE: Explains the incremental or gradualism method of constitutional litigation.