Stare Decisis Quotes

Custom is petrification; nothing but dynamite can dislodge it for a century.

The Supreme Court overrules, distinguishes, and upholds prior precedents. Sometimes it ignores them. But it does not - cannot - 'defy' them.

… the mansion of constitutionalized abortion law, constructed overnight in Roe v. Wade, must be disassembled doorjamb by doorjamb.

Stare decisis is usually the wise policy, because in most matters it is more important that the applicable rule of law be settled than that it be settled right. ... But in cases involving the Federal Constitution, where correction through legislative action is practically impossible, this Court has often overruled its earlier decisions. ... This is strikingly true of cases under the due process clause.

Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes.

The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.

The law is always in transition.

The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.

Often the less there is to justify a traditional custom the harder it is to get rid it.

Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each successive wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.

One who uses an ancient rule to govern the present does not necessarily see the changes that have taken place.

It has not been unknown that judges persist in error to avoid giving the appearance of weakness and vacillation.

They [the Founding Fathers] recognized fully the value of tradition and habit as the great allies of permanence and stability.

A wise king must do less in altering his laws than he may; for new government is ever dangerous …

All merchants may enter or leave England unharmed and without fear, and may stay or travel within it, by land or water, for purposes of trade, free from all illegal exactions, in accordance with ancient and lawful customs.

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race

Do not let habit, born from experience, force you along this road, directing aimless eye and echoing ear and tongue; but judge by reason …

For those whose exclusive norm of constitutional judging is merely fair reading of language applied to facts objectively viewed, 'Brown' must either be flat-out wrong or a very mystifying decision.

Why should we hesitate to toss the old views overboard.

To reverse and undo what has been done by a predecessor, is very often considered by a successor as the best proof he can give of his own capacity.

No court can make time stand still.

I think justices of all stripes agree that stare decisis is important, but not an inextricable command. It's not inflexible; it's not absolute.

The antiquity of an abuse is no justification for its continuance.

Youth should not accept the old order if the world is to move on.

We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights, older than our political parties, older than our school system. Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way of life, an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in our prior decisions.