Two year ago, the Court decided Dobbs, the most important decision ever concerning stare decisis. How many times does Chief Justice Roberts cited Dobbs in Loper Bright? Zero. I suspect the Chief would prefer to pretend that Dobbs never happened. Indeed, Justice Kagan's dissent calls out Roberts for not citing his own Dobbs concurrence, where it is directly on point!
On the other side of the balance, the most important stare decisis factor—call it the "jolt to the legal system" issue—weighs heavily against overruling Chevron. Dobbs, 597 U. S., at 357 (ROBERTS, C. J., concurring in judgment). Congress and agencies alike have relied on Chevron—have assumed its existence—in much of their work for the last 40 years.
But the failure to cite Dobbs raises questions about what is the appropriate stare decisis framework for constitutional law decisions. Roberts never calls Chevron "egregiously wrong." He only goes so far as to say that Chevron was "fundamentally misguided" and that Chevron "gravely erred." Much more temperate language. Instead, he goes back to Knick and Janus:
