Comments on: Supreme Court Reversals

Question: Supreme Court Reversals

alphanerd — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 09:46:46 -0800

Has the Supreme Court ever reversed a unanimous Supreme Court ruling? How frequently are 8-1 rulings overturned? I'm writing a paper on Brown v. Board of Education and was wondering whether it was worth it for Warren to press for unanimity given that the "all deliberate speed" clause was added to achieve this, and severely diluted the ruling.

Uhm... Is this thing on?

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 18:49:55 -0800

well, didn't Brown v. Board of Ed in itself overturn Plessy v. Ferguson? there's a scotusblog that might know. (and another, and a general legal one too (i bet they would answer emails also about this)

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 18:59:31 -0800

Also, my understanding of the value of unanimity (particularly in, say, US v. Nixon, was not so much that it was less likely to be overturned, but that it assured there was no "wiggle room" to go against the ruling. (Not that that worked, what with the "all deliberate speed" blunder.

By: Jeff Howard

Jeff Howard — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:35:50 -0800

Plessy v Ferguson wasn't a unanimous ruling. Justice Harlan dissented. But it's the only example I know of where the US Supreme Court reversed itself (in Brown). I can't find another example through findlaw.com's lackluster search. There's a pay site with a searchable index that might be more help.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 19:53:52 -0800

well, Bowers v. Hardwick and Lawrence v. Texas (the recent texas sodomy case) should count as a reversal too, altho neither were unanimous.

By: PrinceValium

PrinceValium — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 20:05:35 -0800

From the GPO's Annotated Constitution: Supreme Court Decisions Overruled by Subsequent Decisions. (The list ends at 1992, a few more are in the 2000 supplement.)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 20:11:17 -0800

boy, that's a lot of overturned cases.

By: boltman

boltman — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 20:43:01 -0800

Just to restate what the linked report says though, the SCOTUS almost never uses the term "reversed" when referring to their own precedent. Even if they knock out a large chunk of a prior decision, they'll usually do it by "distinguishing" the prior casse. Lawrence is actually pretty rare in actually coming right out and saying, more or less, "we were wrong."

By: boltman

boltman — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 20:43:43 -0800

ack, sorry, not reversed, overruled.