previous cases that are similar in fact pattern and public policy. There are two ways stare decisis works, however. A lower court within the jurisdiction of a superior court is legally bound by the rulings of the superior court. For example, no trial court in the United States today can rule that abortion is not a constitutionally protected right. This is because the United States ruled in Roe that the decision to have an abortion was a privacy right that was protected by the U.S. Constitution. In such cases, stare decisis is a legal mandate that lower courts cannot subvert or ignore. Notably, this is not the case to which most courts would apply the term stare decisis. That terms is more often used when the precedent is non-binding, as discussed below.
There is a non-binding form of stare decisis as well. In such cases, courts of equal jurisdiction û for example, the federal circuit appellate courts or courts of last resort in two different states û are not legally bound by stare decisis across their jurisdictions. Legal expert Gerald Gall explains it this way. Every lower court is bound by the decisions of higher courts within the same geographical jurisdiction. But the decision of any court of another jurisdiction can only act as persuasive authority.
For example, the United States Supreme Court case of Quality King v. L'Anza Research involved a specific copyright law issue that had clearly been decided differently by the 3rd and 9th federal circuit courts of appeal. However, the 9th circuit court in 1997 was able to reach a decision that conflicted with the 3rd circuit's earlier 1988 ruling because the doctrine of stare decisis did not bind these two courts of equal but geographically disparate jurisdiction. Thus, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide the issue.
The Court's decision in Quality King overruled the 9th circuit's interpretation of the issue in favor of the 3rd circuit's inter...