Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said the high court shouldn’t blindly follow precedents to guide rulings if the established rulings go against what the law says or doesn’t line up with the nation’s legal traditions.
“At some point we need to think about what we’re doing with stare decisis,” Thomas said Thursday while speaking at an event at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C.
“And it’s not some sort of talismanic deal where you can just say ‘stare decisis’ and not think, turn off the brain, right?”
Stare decisis is Latin for “to stand by things decided.”
Thomas also suggested some justices have blindly followed prior judgments.
“We never go to the front to see who’s driving the train, where is it going. And you could go up there in the engine room, find it’s an orangutan driving the train, but you want to follow that just because it’s a train,” Thomas said.
“I don’t think that I have the gospel,” he said, “that any of these cases that have been decided are the gospel, and I do give perspective to the precedent. But it should — the precedent should be respectful of our legal tradition, and our country, and our laws, and be based on something, not just something somebody dreamt up and others went along with.”
The high court in recent years has overturned long-standing precedents on abortion law and affirmative action. It will also hear a case on whether the president can remove a Federal Trade Commission chief for what might be political reasons.
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