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3 answers

No, I am not familiar with it, but what you state isn't quite true. The supreme court did not rule as you stated. I suggest you look up these three doctrines:
Res Judicata
Collateral Estoppel
Law of the Case

2007-05-04 15:49:30 · answer #1 · answered by cyanne2ak 7 · 1 0

The United States follows a tradition, begun in England centuries ago called the Doctrine of Stare Decisis.

This means that when a higher court addresses a legal issue, its holding in that case becomes binding precedent which that court and all lower courts must follow in similar cases, unless and until another much higher court quashes, disapproves or otherwise reverses the judgment of the higher court. A higher court can recede from its own holding in a case, in another case, if it is persuaded that it was mistaken on the law or to some extent, some other fact scenario distinguishes the holding in the case.

I don't know what decision you are referring to in '06, as the US Supreme Court decides about 80 cases a year.

However, when the same parties are involved in a case, different doctrines come into play.

The doctine of Law of the Case addresses a decision which, once made, prevents the parties from relitigating the question of law, UNLESS, the facts change. Law of the Case doctrine applies to parties in a case who take non-final orders up on appeal, or attempt to relitigate issues already decided in a case. However, as I said, if the facts change, then the courts are obligated to revisit holdings on the law, to the extent that it would be inequitable or inappopriate to recognize a change in circumstances.

All courts can reopen judgments under doctrines called Writ of Corum Nobis and Writ of Corum Vobis.

Both of these writs are called extraordinary proceedings, and a judgment can be reopened for fraud, reversal by a higher court, change of facts or circumstances, and inquitable misconduct of a party to the case.

Collateral Estoppel means that the same parties are prevented from relitigating similar issues in different cases, or within the same case.

Res Judicata assures that once a case has come to rest and no further judicial action is required, that the judgment is final and binding on the same parties to the action, and those parties acting in privity with them.

The permutations are, naturally, endless.

2007-05-04 16:02:26 · answer #2 · answered by krollohare2 7 · 0 0

A judgment on a particular legal question is binding on all lower courts. So if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in one case that an officer who had permission to search a car and also searched a purse inside of the car was within the law when searching the purse, all other courts in the U.S. are bound by that decision on that one issue. It is called "stare decisis" - which is a latin and means 'stand by the decision'

2007-05-04 15:58:26 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0 0

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