Over the weekend, Yale law professor Akhil Amar had a substantial essay in the Wall Street Journal discussing the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs by Justice Alito that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Professor Amar is one of the nation's most prominent constitutional law professors. He is fairly progressive, but also considers himself an originalist. As a consequence, he sometimes breaks with prevailing academic sentiments, and he did so here, arguing there is "nothing radical, illegitimate or improperly political in what Justice Alito has written."
While some commentators have claimed the Dobbs draft would represent a dramatic break from the Court's prior treatment of precedent, Professor Amar claims there was not "anything unusual" in the draft's treatment of precedent.
Supreme Court precedents strictly bind lower courts, but they do not bind the Supreme Court itself. Indeed, an essential function of the Court is to revise incorrect or outdated prior rulings. Over the last century, the Court has overruled itself about twice a year—roughly the same rate at which the Court has overturned acts of Congress.
Precedents fall for many reasons. Sometimes the world changes in ways that mock the logic and expectations of the old ruling. Sometimes opposing lines of cases evolve and clash, and something must give. Most fundamentally, sometimes the Court comes to believe that an old case egregiously misinterpreted the Constitution, so the old case must go.
