stare decisis

[stair-ee di-sahy-sis]

noun

Law.

1. the doctrine that rules or principles of law on which a court rested a previous decision are authoritative in all future cases in which the facts are substantially the same.

stare decisis

1. A Latin phrase that literally means “to stand on the decisions.” It expresses the common law doctrine that court decisions should be guided by precedent.

Word History and Origins

Origin of stare decisis¹

First recorded in 1855–60, stare decisis is from Latin stāre dēcīsīs “to stand by things (that have been) settled”

Example Sentences

As Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor put it in their dissenting opinion in Dobbs, “Stare decisis is the Latin phrase for a foundation stone of the rule of law: that things decided should stay decided unless there is a very good reason for change. It is a doctrine of judicial modesty and humility.”

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Stare decisis, or respect for precedent, is foremost among them.

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Stare decisis provides that the high court may not overrule a decision, even a constitutional one, without a “special justification” and that it “must have a good reason to do so over and above the belief that the precedent was wrongly decided.”

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All said they respected stare decisis, the principle that justices should be guided by the decisions made by previous courts, such as Roe and Planned Parenthood vs.

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Barry Friedman, a law professor at New York University and the author of a 2010 article on “stealth overruling,” said such data have limitations in assessing the court’s commitment to the principle of stare decisis, legal Latin for “to stand by things decided.”

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