2.9 - The Role of the Judicial Branch

Precedent and Stare Decisis

• Stare Decisis: Latin for "let the decision stand."

• Precedent: a past ruling that shapes future decisions.

• Justices aren't required to follow past rulings, but stare decisis is generally treated as a guiding principle. Supreme Court precedent is binding on lower courts, and that established law is called case law.

• Precedent in action: in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Court relied on earlier prior restraint cases, like Near v. Minnesota (1931), to rule that any attempt to block publication faces a "heavy presumption" against it. Following precedent makes the law predictable and makes rulings look less like personal opinions.

Judicial Appointments and Ideology

• New appointments can shift the Court's ideological balance, which can lead to old precedents being overturned. Example: after RBG's death, Trump's third conservative nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, created a 6-3 conservative majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

• Another example: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the "separate but equal" precedent from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The ruling was unanimous and came soon after President Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as Chief Justice in 1953. Overturning precedent isn't automatically good or bad: Brown is now almost universally praised.

What presidents look for in a nominee

• Political ideology: usually the top priority. Obama nominated two liberals, Trump nominated three conservatives, Biden nominated one liberal.

• Age: since justices serve for life, presidents like younger nominees, often mid to late forties or early fifties, so they can serve for decades.

• Other factors: judicial philosophy, sex, and race. Reagan promised to name the first woman to the Court and picked Sandra Day O'Connor (1981); George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, a Black justice, to replace Thurgood Marshall (1991); Biden promised to name the first Black woman and picked Ketanji Brown Jackson (2022).

End of Tenure and Strategic Retirement

• Strategic Retirements: increasingly common, where a justice retires while a president who shares their ideology is in office, to make sure their replacement matches their views.
• Example: RBG's decision not to retire during Obama's second term meant she was ultimately replaced by a conservative justice under Trump, shifting the Court's balance.

Debate Over Precedent

• Precedent guides the Court but doesn't bind it.

• With the current 6-3 conservative majority, the Court has overturned several long-standing precedents.
• Examples: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) overturned Roe v. Wade (1973), and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024) overturned the Chevron doctrine (1984), which had told judges to defer to agencies' readings of unclear laws.

• Justice Clarence Thomas has argued the Court gives precedent too much weight: "When faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it" (Gamble v. United States, 2019).

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