California Bloggin' v5.0 :: Desiderium

Stare Decisis

I'm too upset to write anything about BB6. Actually, I'm hoping that last night was nothing more than a bad dream ... or a visit to the Twilight Zone for me and all of the other Sovereign Six fans ... and we'll watch Tuesday's show and see Janie, not Maggie, in the final 2.

So, because I'm still in denial about last night's show, I'll post about something that's been bothering me since Monday. I was listening to the Roberts confirmation hearings. Roberts and Arlen Specter used the term "stare decisis" quite a few times. I know quite a bit about the law and legal stuff. (GSG even told me I'm well-versed in the law, considering I'm not a lawyer.) But I had never heard "stare decisis" before. I was hoping that one of the anchors on MSNBC would explain it. They didn't, so I figured that, although I'd never heard it, it must be a fairly common term or the anchors and researchers didn't know what it meant either and didn't bother to look it up.

Since Monday, I've been meaning to look it up but when I got on the 'net I'd get involved in something else (read: checking out the BB6 message boards) and forget. I'd only remember when I was all comfy and cozy in bed. But this morning I finally remembered while I was actually sitting here at the computer.

Stare decisis: (stah-ree duh-sigh-sis) n. Latin for "to stand by a decision," the doctrine that a trial court is bound by appellate court decisions (precedents) on a legal question which is raised in the lower court. Reliance on such precedents is required of trial courts until such time as an appellate court changes the rule, for the trial court cannot ignore the precedent (even when the trial judge believes it is "bad law").

Why couldn't Specter and Roberts just speak English? Because they're lawyers. Although I have a "thing" for lawyers, that's one of the things I don't like about them.