Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Settled may not mean certain

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When the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case before it, for better or worse, the issue is decided and judges thereafter are expected to follow the court’s decision. This principle of “settled” law comes under that known as “stare decisis.”

What is settled in law, however, may not be certain. Issues most of us thought were settled long ago are alive and well in the 2012 presidential election.

Most of us considered a woman’s absolute right to make her own decisions about her body, including the use of contraceptives, settled by the 1970s. Yet clearly in the minds of some, like Rick Santorum, the existence of this right is not settled at all.

Santorum is in favor of imposing the beliefs of his church on the rest of us, particularly on women. More startling is that he wishes to lead a government that would regulate women’s health choices. Santorum and the people who agree with and support him will work and vote to keep alive the culture wars of a previous time. So much for “stare decisis.”

Those who have not been paying attention and perhaps felt no reason to are discovering that what seemed like settled law 50 years ago is not settled at all. Even when an overwhelming percentage of women of childbearing years actually use contraception, including birth control pills, the issue is not settled.

We have believed that we could take for granted the rights given by the Constitution and validated by the courts in the secular realm, no matter what faith traditions teach. We can no longer kid ourselves about whether rights can be taken away, “stare decisis” notwithstanding.

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