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Stare decisis (Latin: maintain what has been decided) is a common law legal principle that encourages courts to makes decisions based on established interpretations of statutes or the Constitution set in earlier cases, called precedents.

Precedents set by higher courts, such as the US Supreme Court, are binding, meaning inferior trial and appellate courts are supposed to use them as rules for deciding similar cases. This helps maintain consistency in applying the law.

While the Supreme Court often maintains precedents established by earlier (Supreme) Courts, they have the authority to overturn old precedents and set new ones when appropriate. One well-known example is when the Warren Court decided segregation was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, (1954). This overturned a precedent known as the "separate but equal" doctrine affirmed in Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896) that declared providing separate facilities for African-Americans and Caucasians was constitutional, as long as the facilities were of equal quality (which was seldom the case). The old precedent was overturned when the Supreme Court reinterpreted the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause and determined that "separate but equal" was never equal because segregating African-Americans was comparable to labeling them inferior, and was therefore unconstitutional.

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Explain the operation of precedent and stare decisis on case law?

Relating to the law of precedents, the concept of stare decisis relates to the binding nature of an earlier decision over a subsequent court called upon to decide over a similar issue.Stare Decisis operates at two levels:1. Binding precedent (or mandatory authority); and2. Persuasive precedentBinding precedent is when a similar matter has been decided upon by a superior court, a junior or subordinate court is required to follow the ruling.Persuasive precedent is when a similar matter has been decided by a different bench of the same court, or a court of the same rank or junior / subordinate court.


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