Continued Confessions

And a lesson in Latin

There are many things in this world that I know nothing about such as cryptocurrencies and NFT’s (although I do like the word fungible). So when I woke up this morning thinking about stare decisis I figured I had better do my research before I mislead you as to its meaning. The American Bar Association website says that it is a Latin term that means “let the decision stand” or “to stand by things decided” and that it is “a foundational concept in the American legal system.” There are also vertical or horizontal versions, with vertical being what makes the Supreme Court the final arbiter. I also turned to a wonderful source I had almost forgotten about: The Kahn Academy. It turns out they have any number of fabulous videos discussing this very concept. So now that I have my grounding, let me explain why this matters so much to me. I have been on the forefront of abortion rights fights since before the 1973 final passage of Roe v. Wade. So how on earth did the Supremes ignore stare decisis in the recent overturning of precedent? Well, it turns out that if you can prove that the previous ruling was egregiously wrong or legally flawed it may be overturned. The Federalist Society and Hillsdale College have been working for years to stack the Supreme Court with the express purpose of overturning our abortion rights. And didn’t the nominees agree during their hearings that they would abide by stare decisis? I seem to remember hearing that very question being asked and answered affirmatively—could that be construed as lying under oath?

Please be very mindful in this pivotal run up to the next Presidential election about who is really running the show. I hate the divisiveness and chaos we are currently experiencing. But I believe the seeds have been deliberately sown. Let’s all concentrate on weeding out the rabble at our local level (some great results from this year) and then reclaiming the precedent of America as the land of the free where every vote counts.