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By Tom Head. Definition: Stare decisis (Latin: stand by the decision) is a legal phrase referring to the obligation of courts to honor past precedents. There are essentially two types of stare decisis. One is the obligation that trial courts have to honor the precedents of higher courts. A local trial court in Mississippi cannot legally convict a person for flag desecration, for example, because a higher court--the U.S.
For stare decisis to be effective, each jurisdiction must have one highest court to declare what the law is in a precedent-setting case. The U.S. Supreme Court and the state supreme courts serve as precedential bodies, resolving conflicting interpretations of law or dealing with issues of first impression.