A bedrock legal doctrine called "stare decisis," Latin for "to stand by things decided," calls upon courts to respect their prior precedents when resolving new cases on similar matters. A basic tenet ...

Legal precedent comes from court decisions where judges are asked to interpret the law, and once a court rules on an issue, legal precedent becomes the law. This means that legal precedent and ...

It may be Christmas and Hanukkah season, but I’ve got a Supreme Court ghost story to tell. It comes from Justice Antonin ...

Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft of a decision that would appear to place the future of abortion rights, and in ...

The prior-panel-precedent rule allows federal appellate courts to avoid considering “difficult arguments” and “to do its work with fewer judges more quickly,” said a legal scholar who is not involved ...

Recent developments at the Supreme Court have helped kick off a new debate over the role of precedent in judicial decision-making. This term, two significant precedents have been overruled by close ...

In his belligerent speech on September 30 announcing the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, made the alarming assertion that the United States’ use of atomic ...

The first Monday in October commences a new United States Supreme Court term. This term, the court will hear many significant cases. However, the Supreme Court’s own reputation will also be up for ...

Which legal decisions can be used as a precedent, and which cannot? The question was raised in a piece in The New York Times this week about the Bush v. Gore case that decided the 2000 election. Legal ...

Although Supreme Court justices are by no means bound by their past decisions, they often respect them, for a variety of reasons. Justice Elena Kagan offered her reasons for remaining faithful to ...

Sparing the usual litany of "stare decisis" factors, Justice Clarence Thomas offered a simple formula for the amount of deferential weight he gives a precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court: how much he ...

For decades, nominees to the Supreme Court have had to answer questions about Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that, until now, guaranteed the right to abortion in the U.S. "Several of these ...