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30  DOBBS v. JACKSON WOMEN’S HEALTH ORGANIZATION 

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

contested and contestable moral issue.  It forces her to carry 
out the State’s will, whatever the circumstances and what-
ever the harm it will wreak on her and her family.  In the 
Fourteenth Amendment’s terms, it takes away her liberty.
Even before we get to stare decisis, we dissent. 

II
  By overruling Roe, Casey, and more than 20 cases reaf-
firming or applying the constitutional right to abortion, the 
majority abandons stare decisis, a principle central to the
rule of law.  “Stare decisis” means “to stand by things de-
cided.”  Black’s Law Dictionary 1696 (11th ed. 2019).  Black-
stone called it the “established rule to abide by former prec-
edents.”  1  Blackstone  69.  Stare  decisis  “promotes  the 
evenhanded, predictable, and consistent development of le-
gal  principles.”  Payne,  501  U. S.,  at  827.    It  maintains  a 
stability  that  allows  people  to  order  their  lives  under  the 
law.    See  H.  Hart  &  A.  Sacks,  The  Legal  Process:  Basic  
Problems  in  the  Making  and  Application  of  Law  568–569 
(1994). 

Stare decisis also “contributes to the integrity of our con-
stitutional  system  of  government”  by  ensuring  that  deci-
sions “are founded in the law rather than in the proclivities
of individuals.”  Vasquez, 474 U. S., at 265.  As Hamilton 
wrote:  It  “avoid[s]  an  arbitrary  discretion  in  the  courts.”
The Federalist No. 78, p. 529 (J. Cooke ed. 1961) (A. Ham-
ilton).  And as Blackstone said before him: It “keep[s] the 
scale of justice even and steady, and not liable to waver with 
every new judge’s opinion.”  1 Blackstone 69.  The “glory” of 
our legal system is that it “gives preference to precedent ra-
ther than . . . jurists.”  H. Humble, Departure From Prece-
dent,  19  Mich.  L. Rev.  608,  614  (1921).    That  is  why,  the
story  goes,  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall  donned  a  plain 
black robe when he swore the oath of office.  That act per-
sonified  an  American  tradition.    Judges’  personal  prefer-
ences  do  not  make  law;  rather,  the  law  speaks  through