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 ...

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 ...

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a summary reversal to enforce its own clear and on-point precedent. In doing so, the court reminded the lower courts of how authoritative it is. For instance, the ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

WASHINGTON (CN) — Rulings from the Supreme Court hold enormous weight because unlike bills from Congress or executive orders from the president, their effectiveness is not dependent on the current ...

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 ...

Separate opinions in a case show nine justices pursuing agendas far removed from the dispute at hand. By Linda Greenhouse Contributing Opinion Writer The country wasn’t exactly holding its breath for ...