Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2020
Publication Citation
104 Judicature 50 (2020)
Abstract
Earlier commentators, including many well-respected judges, have offered thoughtful suggestions for facilitating communication from courts to Congress about problems in statutes that Congress might want to address. My research explores the opposite question. How effective is communication from Congress back to courts? The answer is: Not very. Even when Congress enacts overrides, courts frequently continue to follow the prior judicial precedent. This is likely due more to information failure than willful disregard of controlling law. Nonetheless, a key aspect of the separation of powers is broken.
My research shows that when the Supreme Court overrules a prior decision, lower courts quickly decrease their reliance on the old precedent and begin to apply the new rule. By contrast, when Congress enacts an override, citation patterns to the prior precedent change very little. Even a decade later, many overridden precedents, or what I have called “shadow precedents,” are still routinely cited as controlling precedent.
Recommended Citation
Widiss, Deborah A., "Communication Breakdown: How Courts Do - and Don't - Respond to Statutory Overrides" (2020). Articles by Maurer Faculty. 2938.
https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/2938