MGibson asks:
Since when does the Supreme Court simply overturn past decisions?
Thanks for the response.
If I’m correct you’ve put your finger one of the key fault lines in the current Supreme Court. There are (IMHO) perhaps 5 conservatives: Scalia, Rehnquist, Kennedy,
O’Connor, and Thomas. (We’ll call Souter a moderate). Three of them are “radical conservatives”, meaning they’re willing to overturn precedent.
A good example is abortion:
Here’s Scalia in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989):
“It thus appears that the mansion of constitutionalized abortion law, constructed overnight in Roe vs. Wade, must be disassembled doorjamb by doorjamb, and never entirely brought down, no matter how wrong it may be … We should decide now, and not insist that we be run into a corner before we grudgingly yield up our judgment.”
The man has a way with words. O’Connor’s response was, IIRC, “There will be a time to consider Roe, and consider it well”.
Blackmun spoke for the more liberal members when he wrote: “I fear for the future. While for today, at least, the law of abortion stands undisturbed, the signs are very evident and very ominous, and a chill wind blows.” The ruling, he said, “is filled with winks, and nods, and knowing glances to those who would do away with Roe explicitly.”
Three years later, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), the central core of Roe was upheld by 5 Judges: O’Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Blackmun and Stevens. (Blackmun has since retired.) The opinion of the first three relied heavily on stare decisis, or respect for precedent.
Rehnquist, White (since retired), Scalia and Thomas dissented, arguing that Roe had no Constitutional basis and ought to be overturned.
…
Assuming that the radical three don’t become the fearsome five, I expect the abortion debate to revolve around waiting periods, funding for Planned Parenthood (not a SCOTUS issue, but it’s something that ebbs and flows depending on who is in the white house or in control of Congress), regulation of partial birth abortion, gag rules, etc. Admittedly, I’m not really up on the status of these varying restrictions; some of them may very well have been previously resolved (eg the gag rule?).
When I mentioned third trimester abortions, I was thinking about proposed restrictions on the so-called, “Partial birth abortion method.”