Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 204

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

57 

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

that today’s decision, departing from stare decisis for no le-
gitimate  reason,  is  its  own  loaded  weapon.  Weakening 
stare decisis threatens to upend bedrock legal doctrines, far 
beyond any single decision.  Weakening stare decisis creates 
profound legal instability.  And as Casey recognized, weak-
ening  stare  decisis  in  a  hotly  contested  case  like  this  one
calls into question this Court’s commitment to legal princi-
ple.  It makes the Court appear not restrained but aggres-
sive,  not  modest  but  grasping.  In  all  those  ways,  today’s
decision takes aim, we fear, at the rule of law. 

III 
“Power,  not  reason,  is  the  new  currency  of  this  Court’s
decisionmaking.”    Payne,  501  U. S.,  at  844  (Marshall,  J., 
dissenting).  Roe has stood for fifty years.  Casey, a prece-
dent about precedent specifically confirming Roe, has stood 
for thirty.  And the doctrine of stare decisis—a critical ele-
ment  of  the  rule  of  law—stands  foursquare  behind  their 
continued existence.  The right those decisions established
and preserved is embedded in our constitutional law, both
originating in and leading to other rights protecting bodily 
integrity,  personal  autonomy,  and  family  relationships. 
The abortion right is also embedded in the lives of women—
shaping their expectations, influencing their choices about
relationships  and  work,  supporting  (as  all  reproductive
rights  do)  their  social  and  economic  equality.    Since  the 
right’s recognition (and affirmation), nothing has changed
to support what the majority does today.  Neither law nor 
facts nor attitudes have provided any new reasons to reach
a  different  result  than  Roe  and  Casey  did.  All  that  has 
changed is this Court.

Mississippi—and  other  States  too—knew  exactly  what 
they were doing in ginning up new legal challenges to Roe 
and Casey.  The 15-week ban at issue here was enacted in 
2018.  Other  States  quickly  followed:  Between  2019  and 
2021, eight States banned abortion procedures after six to