precedent

Examples of precedent in the following topics:

• Cases and the Law

  • Essentially, the body of common law is based on the principles of case precedent and stare decisis.
  • In the United States legal system, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts.
  • The general principle in common law legal systems is that similar cases should be decided so as to give similar and predictable outcomes, and the principle of precedent is the mechanism by which this goal is attained.
  • Black's Law Dictionary defines "precedent" as a "rule of law established for the first time by a court for a particular type of case and thereafter referred to in deciding similar cases. "
  • Stare decisis is a legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedent established by prior decisions.

• Judicial Activism and Restraint

  • Judicially-restrained judges respect stare decisis, the principle of upholding established precedent handed down by past judges.
  • When Chief Justice Rehnquist overturned some of the precedents of the Warren Court, Time magazine said he was not following the theory of judicial restraint.

• Common Law

  • Their decisions in the cases before them became the precedent for decisions in future cases.
  • Unlike the states, there is no plenary reception statute at the federal level that continued the common law and thereby granted federal courts the power to formulate legal precedent like their English predecessors.
  • However, it is universally accepted that the Founding Fathers of the United States, by vesting judicial power into the Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts in Article Three of the United States Constitution, vested in them the implied judicial power of common law courts to formulate persuasive precedent.

• Two Judicial Revolutions: The Rehnquist Court and the Roberts Court

  • The Rehnquist Court's congruence and proportionality standard made it easier to revive older precedents preventing Congress from going too far in enforcing equal protection of the laws.
  • It is generally considered more conservative than the preceding Rehnquist Court, as a result of the retirement of moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the subsequent confirmation of the more conservative Justice Samuel Alito in her place.

• U.S. Court of Appeals

  • Decisions made within courts of appeals, unlike those of the lower district courts, establish binding precedents.

• Federalism Today

  • The Supreme Court began applying the Bill of Rights to the states during the 1920s even though the Fourteenth Amendment had not been represented as subjecting the states to its provisions during the debates that preceded ratification of it.
  • By 1933, the precedents necessary for the federal government to exercise broad regulatory power over all economic activity and spend for any purpose it saw fit were almost all in place.
  • The Supreme Court began applying the Bill of Rights to the states during the 1920s even though the Fourteenth Amendment had not been represented as subjecting the states to its provisions during the debates that preceded ratification of it.

• Types of Media

  • In 2011-12 the United States was ranked 47th out of 179 countries, which was a setback from the preceding year.

• World War I and the League of Nations

  • The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years.

• Primary Sources of American Law

  • American judges, like common law judges elsewhere, not only apply the law, they also make the law, to the extent that their decisions in the cases before them become precedent for decisions in future cases.
  • Foreign law has never been cited as binding precedent, but merely as a reflection of the shared values of Anglo-American civilization or even Western civilization in general.

• The Expansion of Presidential Powers

  • While not enshrined in the Constitution, or any other law, Washington's action created the precedent for the privilege.
  • These cases established the legal precedent that executive privilege is valid, although the exact extent of the privilege has yet to be clearly defined.