"It is a maxim among these lawyers that whatever hath been done before may legally be done again, and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and general reason of mankind. These, under the name of precedents, they produce as authorities, to justify the most iniquitous opinions."
----Jonathon Swift
lawful: (adj.) compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction
----Ambrose Bierce
Update:
Just in case anyone has forgotten: Stare Decisis is from the Latin meaning "To stand by things decided." The idea behind stare decisis is that courts are bound to follow the precedent they set (specifically the Supreme Court because all the other courts are legally bound to follow the SC's decisions - but the SC is only bound by stare decisis to follow its own decisions). Stare decisis has engendered such decisions as Planned Parenthood v. Casey (where the SC decided that since Roe v. Wade had been decided, they couldn't overturn the right to abortion). The reasoning behind stare decisis is that there should be stability in the law - people should know what the courts will allow and what the courts will not allow. There's a quick and dirty summary of it for you :).
2 comments:
Remind me again about stare decisis...it has been a few too many years since my business law class.
I find it amusing that lefties have all of this passion for stare decisis when it comes to Roe/Casey/et al, but not for Bowers. I don't imagine they were too upset with Brown overturning Plessy or Lawrence overturning Bowers (which was, what, 15 years old at the time?). Their commitment to judicial stability is a farce - nothing more than a cover for protecting judicial policy decisions with which they agree.
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