Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 49

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

41 

Opinion of the Court 

624  (1943),  after  the  lapse  of  only  three  years,  the  Court 
overruled Minersville School Dist. v. Gobitis, 310 U. S. 586 
(1940),  and  held  that  public  school  students  could  not  be
compelled to salute the flag in violation of their sincere be-
liefs.  Barnette  stands  out  because  nothing  had  changed
during  the  intervening  period  other  than  the  Court’s  be-
lated recognition that its earlier decision had been seriously 
wrong.

On  many  other  occasions,  this  Court  has  overruled  im-
portant constitutional decisions.  (We include a partial list 
in  the  footnote  that  follows.48)  Without  these  decisions, 

—————— 

48 See, e.g., Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U. S. 644 (2015) (right to same-
sex marriage), overruling Baker v. Nelson, 409 U. S. 810 (1972); Citizens 
United v. Federal Election Comm’n, 558 U. S. 310 (2010) (right to engage 
in campaign-related speech), overruling Austin v. Michigan Chamber of 
Commerce, 494 U. S. 652 (1990), and partially overruling McConnell v. 
Federal Election Comm’n, 540 U. S. 93 (2003); Montejo v. Louisiana, 556 
U. S. 778 (2009) (Sixth Amendment right to counsel), overruling Michi-
gan v. Jackson, 475 U. S. 625 (1986); Crawford v. Washington, 541 U. S. 
36  (2004)  (Sixth  Amendment  right  to  confront  witnesses),  overruling 
Ohio v. Roberts,  448  U. S.  56  (1980); Lawrence  v.  Texas,  539  U. S.  558 
(2003) (right to engage in consensual, same-sex intimacy in one’s home),
overruling Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U. S. 186 (1986); Ring v. Arizona, 
536  U. S.  584  (2002)  (Sixth  Amendment  right  to  a  jury  trial  in  capital 
prosecutions), overruling Walton v. Arizona, 497 U. S. 639 (1990); Agos-
tini v. Felton, 521 U. S. 203 (1997) (evaluating whether government aid
violates  the  Establishment  Clause),  overruling  Aguilar  v.  Felton,  473 
U. S. 402 (1985), and School Dist. of Grand Rapids v. Ball, 473 U. S. 373 
(1985); Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida, 517 U. S. 44 (1996) (lack of con-
gressional power under the Indian Commerce Clause to abrogate States’ 
Eleventh Amendment immunity), overruling Pennsylvania v. Union Gas 
Co.,  491  U. S.  1  (1989);  Payne  v.  Tennessee,  501  U. S.  808  (1991)  (the 
Eighth Amendment does not erect a per se bar to the admission of victim 
impact evidence during the penalty phase of a capital trial), overruling 
Booth v. Maryland, 482 U. S. 496 (1987), and South Carolina v. Gathers, 
490 U. S. 805 (1989); Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (1986) (the Equal 
Protection Clause guarantees the defendant that the State will not ex-
clude members of his race from the jury venire on account of race), over-
ruling Swain v. Alabama, 380 U. S. 202 (1965); Garcia v. San Antonio