Why dissent matters : because some people see things the rest of us miss

"Frances Kelsey was a quiet Canadian doctor and scientist who stood up to a huge pharmaceutical company wanting to market a new drug--Thalidomide--and prevented an American tragedy. The nature writer Rachel Carson identified an emerging environmental disaster and pulled the fire alarm. Dissenting juries can and do change the law. They did that when they refused to convict Dr. Henry Morgentaler of performing illegal abortions when he had done just...