Opinion of the Court
American constitutional law as we know it would be unrecognizable, and this would be a different country.
No Justice of this Court has ever argued that the Court should never overrule a constitutional decision, but overruling a precedent is a serious matter. It is not a step that should be taken lightly. Our cases have attempted to provide a framework for deciding when a precedent should be overruled, and they have identified factors that should be considered in making such a decision. Janus v. State, County, and Municipal Employees, 585 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2018) (slip op., at 34–35); Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2020) (Kavanaugh, J., concurring in part) (slip op., at 7–9).
In this case, five factors weigh strongly in favor of overruling Roe and Casey: the nature of their error, the quality of their reasoning, the “workability” of the rules they imposed on the country, their disruptive effect on other areas of the law, and the absence of concrete reliance.
A
The nature of the Court’s error. An erroneous interpretation of the Constitution is always important, but some are more damaging than others.
The infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, was one
Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643 (1961) (the exclusionary rule regarding the inadmissibility of evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment applies to the States), overruling Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U. S. 25 (1949); Smith v. Allwright, 321 U. S. 649 (1944) (racial restrictions on the right to vote in primary elections violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment), overruling Grovey v. Townsend, 295 U. S. 45 (1935); United States v. Darby, 312 U. S. 100 (1941) (congressional power to regulate employment conditions under the Commerce Clause), overruling Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251 (1918); Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U. S. 64 (1938) (Congress does not have the power to declare substantive rules of common law; a federal court sitting in diversity jurisdiction must apply the substantive state law), overruling Swift v. Tyson, 16 Pet. 1 (1842).
