In addition, precedent promotes judicial efficiency: Courts do not have to decide from scratch every time. Adhering to precedent promotes uniformity and consistency in the law. First is the idea of equity or justice, under which “ like cases should be decided alike.” If a court in the past reviewed a particular set of facts and decided a case in a specific way, fairness dictates it should decide another similar case the same way. Over the centuries, courts have stated many reasons they should adhere to precedent. Their explanations also open up the possibility of more reversals of precedent in the future. The justices who voted to overrule the Roe precedent provided the reasoning behind their decision to reverse a longstanding ruling and declare abortion rights are not protected by the U.S. Wade, the 1973 ruling recognizing a constitutional right to abortion.įor years the court had been building up a theory of precedent reversal that would justify overturning Roe, among other precedents it did not like, and the draft opinion leaked in early 2022 foreshadowed this decision. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, when the court overturned Roe v. This is exactly what happened in Dobbs v. But on rare occasions, Supreme Court justices conclude that one of the court’s past constitutional precedents has to go, so they overrule it. It is a central principle of law: Courts, including the Supreme Court, are supposed to follow earlier decisions – precedent – to resolve current disputes.
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