A pair of Supreme Court rulings in June — one on gun rights, the other on abortion — have elicited strong, partisan reactions.
In recent weeks, critics have called out inconsistencies in the court’s decisions: One ruling restricts the ability of states to regulate guns while the other expands the right of states to regulate abortions. The result, opponents say, is that Americans are free to carry guns but forced to carry babies.
Legal scholars observed yet another contradiction. During confirmation hearings and in past decisions, conservative justices extolled the virtues of stare decisis — the legal principle of keeping prior rulings in place. But in June’s monumental 5-4 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the majority reversed that decision, which had stood for nearly 50 years.
