Precedent and the Supreme Court

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the Supreme Court decides how the law, and the Constitution, should be interpreted in a case, that interpretation becomes a precedent. Once that judicial precedent has been set, it's understood that the interpretation and its reasoning should be applied to similar cases in the future. So why might the Supreme Court reconsider its own precedent? And what happens when a precedent is modified, or overruled? We talk to Nina Varsava, a law professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison who studies judicial precedent, and wrote the article, "Precedent on Precedent," and Rachel Rebouche, a law professor at Temple University who specializes in family law, health care law, and comparative family law, and has written about the potential impact of overturning Roe v Wade. PS, want to score a cool new Civics 101 sticker and a $500 Airbnb gift card? Donate to the show! You'll support us and maybe you can go rent an idyllic cabin in Norway. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You have to be careful with the word precedent in Hannah.
0:03.1	It starts to turn what's the word for that thing when you say it over and over and over.
0:06.0	Again, it doesn't mean sense anymore.
0:07.6	You're like precedent, precedent, precedent.
0:09.2	I don't know the word for that thing, but I know what you're talking about.
0:12.0	But that's not why you gotta be careful with the word precedent.
0:14.3	No, no.
0:15.3	You gotta be careful with the word precedent because of the word precedence and precedence.
0:18.6	Ah, precedence day.
0:20.1	Dead precedence.
0:21.1	Dead precedence.
0:22.1	Bredger, precedent.
0:23.1	The precedent of the United States.
0:26.3	The specifics 101, I'm Hannah McCarthy.
0:28.2	I'm the Capity J.
0:29.2	And today we are talking about judicial precedent, how the Supreme Court interprets the law,
0:34.8	and how that interpretation becomes an authority and guidebook for everyone else.
0:40.2	And what happens when that precedent is overturned?
0:47.2	Now we decided to do this episode because of something that's happening right now in
0:50.7	our Supreme Court.
0:52.2	It's June 2022, and earlier this year, a draft opinion in a Supreme Court case about
0:58.1	abortion access.
	...

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