Precedents Are No Obstacle To Overturning Roe V. Wade Opinion
Today the Supreme Court is on the verge of overturning these cases. After all, why stick with a constitutionally unjustified ruling? The answer proposed by supporters of Roe and Casey is that precedent (stare decisis) requires it. It’s true that in our legal system precedent sometimes provides a reason for courts—even the Supreme Court—to stick with a decision that is incorrect. But the operative word here is “sometimes.” Often, the Supreme Court’s constitutional duty requires that the Justices correct their predecessors’ errors by reversing wrongly decided cases—even when those cases have stood for decades and been reaffirmed in the interim....