Obviously, the internet is full of multiples lines of argument regarding the Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson decision and all the cascading effects thereof. I want to focus on just two claims I have heard much too often:
The Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe and Casey lied to the Senate during their confirmation hearings by saying they held Roe and Casey to be “precedents” or “settled law.”
Supreme Court decisions are sacred and overturning Supreme Court decisions is dangerous and rare.
“THE JUSTICES LIED.”
First, no they didn’t. Go read the transcripts or watch the videos of the confirmations for Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. They indicated that Roe and Casey were indeed precedents and settled law. They affirmed the legal doctrine of stare decisis (that, as a rule, Supreme Court decisions should be affirmed). They never claimed the doctrine of stare decisis was absolute and that no Supreme Court decision could be overturned, however.
Second, affirming that something is settled law right now does not indicate that it will stay settled law forever. The 48th footnote in the Dobbs Majority Opinion cites dozens of examples. That brings me to my second point.
“OVERTURNING PREVIOUS CASES IS DANGEROUS.”
This claim can be made only out of dishonesty or ignorance. I like to assume the best of people, so I will assume it’s just ignorance.
Plessy vs. Ferguson established the “separate but equal” doctrine on which our immoral, government-enforced ethnic segregation rested. Fifty-eight years later, Brown vs. the Board of Education discarded Plessy — in part because Plessy was wrong from the start.
Baker vs. Nelson (I would argue accurately) held that marriage was reserved for one man and one woman. Obergefell vs. Hodges overturned Baker and made homosexual marriage the ruling regime in the US.
Bowers vs. Hardwick held that governments could outlaw sodomy and prosecute its practitioners. Lawrence vs. Texas struck down the core holding of Bowers.
Many of these people are lying to you.
No one is a stare decisis absolutist. Do you think the people screeching about Roe’s demise bemoaned the overturning of Plessy, Brown, and Lawrence? Of course not.
The people making this point don’t even actually believe what they’re saying.
Many of them want other cases regarding gun rights and religious freedom overturned right now. They care nothing for stare decisis in those areas.
CONCLUSION
The internet is full of lies, manipulations, and terrible arguments right now. Don’t be taken in by the ones that say these Justices lied or that this action of overturning a landmark decision is rare or radical.
