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Clarence Thomas calls for abandoning 'demonstrably erroneous' precedent
Foxnews ^

Posted on 06/17/2019 3:14:59 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA

In a concurring opinion in a Supreme Court case announced Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a lengthy call for his colleagues to overturn "demonstrably erroneous decisions" even if they have been upheld for decades -- prompting legal observers to say Thomas was laying the groundwork to overturn the seminal 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion.

Thomas' blunt opinion came in a case concerning the so-called "double-jeopardy" doctrine, which generally prohibits an individual from being charged twice for the same crime. But both pro-life and pro-choice advocates quickly noted the implications of his reasoning for a slew of other future cases, including a potential revisiting of Roe.

"When faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it," Thomas wrote, noting that lower federal courts should also disregard poor precedents. Thomas went on to add that precedent "may remain relevant when it is not demonstrably erroneous."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: clarencethomas; judiciary; justicethomas; scotus
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Liberals cannot see "shall not be infringed" yet invent "Penumbral rights" for their pet agendas.
1 posted on 06/17/2019 3:14:59 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
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To: Red in Blue PA

He’s absolutely right.


2 posted on 06/17/2019 3:23:51 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Red in Blue PA

Clarence Thomas, IMO, the best SCOTUS justice ever!!

We need eight more just like him on the high bench!!


3 posted on 06/17/2019 3:25:23 PM PDT by edie1960
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To: Red in Blue PA

The balance between stare decis and original interpretation is an interesting one, as it gets to the philosophy of a justice with respect to the passage of time. Do things change enough to warrant reversing a prior decision, and if so, what standard applies? “Demonstrably erroneous” is different than “Grievously wrong”, and his willingness to make pragmatic changes opened even Justice Scalia up to criticism:

“Faced with this problem, Justice Scalia famously described himself as a“faint-hearted originalist” who would abandon the historical meaning when following it was intolerable. He claimed that “stare decisis is not part of my originalist philosophy; it is a pragmatic exception to it.””

Those who are interested in understanding the issue rather than just parroting talking points will find the article below worth reading, especially because the author is Amy Conan Barrett, who will likely be the next nominee to sit on the US Supreme Court:

https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4734&context=ndlr


4 posted on 06/17/2019 3:30:23 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
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To: Red in Blue PA

Wheeeee! Fireworks for the Fourth of July, Baby!

Thank you Judge Thomas for peeling back the layers of BS America has suffered from, thanks to the Socialist noses under our tent! :)


5 posted on 06/17/2019 3:31:40 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.~Alfred Austin)
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To: edie1960

All kinds of decisions can be “demonstrably erroneous” in the fevered minds of lawyers.


6 posted on 06/17/2019 3:32:07 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: edie1960

True.

Think of the fate of so many babies whose lives hang in the balance over some legal wordage and a vote by the SCOTUS.


7 posted on 06/17/2019 3:32:58 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: Red in Blue PA

Even the Dems know that Roe was a bad decision.


8 posted on 06/17/2019 3:33:11 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: Red in Blue PA

Dred Scott...three-fifths of a person.

9 posted on 06/17/2019 3:40:22 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (A joke: Comey,Brennan and Lynch walk into a Barr...)
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To: Red in Blue PA

That would signifigantly weaken stare decisis. Which in many cases would be a good idea.

CC


10 posted on 06/17/2019 3:42:18 PM PDT by Celtic Conservative (My cats are more amusing than 200 channels worth of TV)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

“Wheeeee! Fireworks for the Fourth of July, Baby!”

I would like to celebrate a memorial service to Ruth.


11 posted on 06/17/2019 3:44:16 PM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: Red in Blue PA

Hopefully that will apply to firearms laws too.


12 posted on 06/17/2019 3:44:59 PM PDT by wastedyears (The left would kill every single one of us and our families if they knew they could get away with it)
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To: tired&retired

13 posted on 06/17/2019 3:50:57 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden.~Alfred Austin)
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To: Red in Blue PA

So, according to those so afraid of his statement, Plessy v. Ferguson should still be the law, there should be no child labor laws or minimum wage laws, because that was well established precedent?


14 posted on 06/17/2019 3:51:33 PM PDT by mak5
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To: Red in Blue PA
Roe was never based on sound legal reasoning. It rests on an invented right from an invented source with a fabricated conclusion. It is no more logical than saying "All grass is pink. This is a tree. Therefore, you can kill your children."

Same with Brown. Warren's utterly fatuous declaration that "separate is inherently unequal" not only defines the case, it goes unchallenged, despite the absence of any substantive argument in its favor.

There are others. THOSE are the precedents that need to be revisited.

15 posted on 06/17/2019 4:22:33 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: Red in Blue PA; All
As a side note to this thread, please consider the following.

Corrupt, post-17th Amendment career lawmakers get around 1st Amendment prohibitions on making politically correct, vote-winning laws that prohibit religious expression for example, by nominating activist Supreme Court justices and judges who do Congress’s dirty, unconstitutional legislative work for it by legislating laws prohibiting religious expression from the bench.

Patriots need to clean up the anti-religious expression federal and state government swamp by electing a new patriot Congress in 2020 elections that will not only support PDJT’s vision for MAGA, but will also promise to do the following.

New patriot lawmakers not only need to get activist justices and judges off of the bench, but also exercise Congress's 14th Amendment power to make penal laws that discourage state actors from abridging constitutionally enumerated protections.

From the 14th Amendment:

Remember in November 2020!

MAGA!

16 posted on 06/17/2019 4:45:20 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: bigbob

Thanks for the link. I have DL’d and read a few pages. Very interesting actually, I expected it to be too heavy for me.

I will read the rest when I am not having my before dinner adult beverages.


17 posted on 06/17/2019 4:47:04 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: mak5
Yes, Plessy should still be the ruling precedent. At least it was argued soundly, unlike Brown, which reversed it.

It wasn't until Roosevelt stacked the Court with his "Progressive" fellow travelers that child labor and minimum wage precedents were revisited, and generally overruled by drastic extension of the Commerce Clause. That's not exactly what I'd call progress.

18 posted on 06/17/2019 4:50:03 PM PDT by IronJack
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To: Red in Blue PA

So, bad habits do not make good law.


19 posted on 06/17/2019 5:10:00 PM PDT by jimfree (My18 y/o granddaughter continues to have more quality exec experience than an 8 year Obama.)
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To: Gay State Conservative

That right there, my FRiend, is grounds for overturning Roe.

Dred Scott was overturned.
So why are we still quibbling over when a fetus “becomes” 100% human, now that we have the science of DNA ?


20 posted on 06/17/2019 5:30:10 PM PDT by mumblypeg (I've seen the Future, brother. It is murder.. --L. Cohen)
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