馃攳
Stare decisis and precedent in the Supreme Court | US government and civics | Khan Academy - YouTube
Channel: Khan Academy
[0]
as we've talked about in many videos the
[3]
united states supreme court has a very
[6]
different role than the executive or the
[10]
legislative branches the executive
[12]
branch of course runs the government the
[15]
legislative branch they make the laws
[17]
and set the budgets and the supreme
[19]
court can rule that a law is
[22]
unconstitutional or it can interpret
[25]
laws in a specific case
[27]
and when the supreme court justices make
[30]
these decisions they try to follow the
[32]
principle of stara decisis which is
[36]
latin for let the decision stand it's
[39]
this idea of taking previous decisions
[42]
as an example and if we're in a similar
[44]
case now then just use that decision as
[47]
an example for this one
[48]
this is closely associated with the idea
[51]
of precedent
[52]
precedent in everyday language means
[55]
something that has happened before an
[57]
action or decision that we can use as a
[59]
guide or as an example
[62]
and that's exactly what the supreme
[63]
court tries to do if the supreme court
[65]
has made a previous ruling on a similar
[67]
case that would be considered a
[69]
precedent for this case the supreme
[72]
court has been often described as
[74]
umpires like umpires in a baseball game
[78]
even chief justice john roberts
[80]
described it as such when he was being
[82]
during his confirmation hearings and
[84]
it's this idea that they should be these
[86]
objective arbiters of what the truth is
[89]
of what is constitutional what is not
[92]
what does the law actually mean but we
[94]
know in reality these are human beings
[97]
and no matter how unbiased and no matter
[99]
how objective they try to be they still
[102]
bring to the table their views and their
[104]
experiences
[105]
and so even though this seems like a
[107]
very clean process there's definitely a
[110]
large degree of subjectivity here and
[113]
because the executive branch in
[114]
particular the president can appoint
[117]
supreme court justices there's
[119]
definitely examples in history of
[122]
changes in politics having long-term
[124]
effects on changes in the supreme court
[127]
for example
[129]
a significant case of overturning
[131]
precedent happens from 1896 to 1954.
[136]
in 1896 you have the plessy versus
[138]
ferguson case that we cover in several
[140]
other videos where the then supreme
[142]
court rules that laws that involve
[144]
segregation are okay
[147]
but then you fast forward almost 60
[149]
years and then the supreme court then in
[151]
brown versus board of education of
[153]
topeka ruled that no separate but equal
[156]
is not constitutional that segregation
[159]
is not okay
[160]
and this was influenced by this idea of
[164]
over time you had presidents who were
[166]
able to do
[167]
make judicial appointments to the
[169]
supreme court
[171]
as members of the supreme court died or
[173]
retired it went through a senate
[175]
confirmation process
[178]
and then these justices have life tenure
[182]
they can stay on the supreme court until
[184]
they pass away or until they decide to
[186]
retire
[187]
and so many historians would say that
[189]
this overturning of precedent was due to
[192]
a change in politics from the 1930s
[195]
through the early 1950s when you had
[198]
several terms of fdr and then you have
[201]
president truman who appointed justices
[204]
to the supreme court that would
[206]
eventually rule on brown versus board of
[208]
education and they would be more
[210]
pro-civil rights
[212]
and what's interesting about this is
[214]
even though presidents try to appoint
[216]
folks who they believe would maybe vote
[219]
the way they would or have similar views
[222]
many times it doesn't always work that
[224]
way for example president eisenhower who
[227]
was a republican appointed justice earl
[230]
warren who was a republican governor of
[232]
california but warren ended up being
[235]
famous for taking more liberal stances
[237]
than not including on brown versus board
[240]
of education
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage