Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-451_7m58.pdf
Page Number: 56.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

9 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

can  be  corrected  otherwise  only  through  the  amendment 
process.  See, e.g., Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. v. Hyatt, 587 
U. S. 230, 248 (2019).  When it comes to fixing errors of stat-
utory interpretation, the Court has proceeded perhaps more 
circumspectly.  But in that field, too, it has overruled even 
longstanding but “flawed” decisions.  See, e.g., Leegin Crea-
tive Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., 551 U. S. 877, 904, 
907 (2007).

Recent history illustrates all this.  During the tenures of 
Chief Justices Warren and Burger, it seems this Court over-
ruled an average of around three cases per Term, including
roughly  50  statutory  precedents  between  the  1960s  and 
1980s alone.  See W. Eskridge, Overruling Statutory Prec-
edents,  76  Geo.  L. J.  1361,  1427–1434  (1988)  (collecting 
cases).  Many  of  these  decisions  came  in  settings  no  less
consequential  than  today’s.  In  recent  years,  we  have  not
approached the pace set by our predecessors, overruling an
average of just one or two prior decisions each Term.1  But 
the point remains:  Judicial decisions inconsistent with the 
written law do not inexorably control. 

Second, another lesson tempers the first.  While judicial
decisions may not supersede or revise the Constitution or
federal statutory law, they merit our “respect as embodying
the considered views of those who have come before.”  Ra-
mos v. Louisiana, 590 U. S. 83, 105 (2020).  As a matter of 
professional responsibility, a judge must not only avoid con-
fusing his writings with the law.  When a case comes before 
him, he must also weigh his view of what the law demands
against the thoughtful views of his predecessors.  After all, 
“[p]recedent is a way of accumulating and passing down the
learning of past generations, a font of established wisdom 

—————— 

1 For relevant databases of decisions, see Congressional Research Ser-
vice, Table of Supreme Court Decisions Overruled by Subsequent Deci-
sions,  Constitution  Annotated,  https://constitution.congress.gov/resources/
decisions-overruled/; see also H. Spaeth et al., 2023 Supreme Court Da-
tabase, http://supremecourtdatabase.org.