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Thesis
LOOKING BEHIND THE CURTAIN
University of West Florida
Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida
2012
Abstract
Stare decisis establishes that principles or rules of law on which a court rested a previous decision on become authoritative in all future cases with substantially the same facts. Attempting to understand the motivations behind judicial decision-making has led to diverse schools of thought: precedentialists, legal moderates, and preferentialists, with each school varying on the influence of precedent. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether stare decisis influences judicial decision-making, specifically Supreme Court decisions and opinions concerning reproductive rights. Spaeth and Segal's Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U's. Supreme Court claims, "the best evidence for the influence of precedent must come from those who dissented from the majority opinion in the case under question" (Spaeth and Segal 2001, 5). Logically if the "precedent established in that case influences them, [then] that influence should be felt in that case's progeny, through their votes and opinion writing" (Spaeth and Segal 2001, 5).
Details
- Title
- LOOKING BEHIND THE CURTAIN
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Publisher
- University of West Florida
- Format
- text
- Identifiers
- 99380090842906600
- Academic Unit
- Reubin O'D. Askew Department of Government
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Master of Arts (MA)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida