The Supreme Court in the 1940s

Blows to Stare Decisis.

In law the doctrine of stare decisis (to stand by decided matters) is the policy of making contemporary judgments according to previous judgments and decisions. The doctrine is fundamentally conservative, binding the law to the past, regardless of current circumstances. In the twentieth century it was often challenged by the judicial philosophies of sociological jurisprudence and legal realism, which integrate contemporary concerns and social science into legal decisions. Beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Supreme Court began to undergo a dramatic change from stare decisis to legal realism. The effect of the Great Depression on law set these changes into motion. The Supreme Court refused to alter contractual and constitutional law to meet the economic emergency and invalidated one New Deal program after another. The Supreme Court also affirmed segregation statutes at a time when civil rights...