Discussions of audience, such as those by Russell Long, Carol Berkenkotter, David Park, Lisa Ede, and Andrea Lunsford, most often do not utilize the research by speech rhetoricians to whom the question of audience has always been central. Chaim Perelman's conception of the "universal audience" and traditional, speech-oriented rhetoric…

Using Chaim Perelman's concept of the "universal audience" as a method of analysis, an investigation was made into the images of equality under the law in two landmark Supreme Court rulings on segregation, "Plessy v. Ferguson" and "Brown v. Board of Education." The analysis revealed that the Supreme Court in both…