Overrule in the United States

To set aside or replace a holding from a previous decision. A decision can be overruled by the same court or a higher court in a case that raises the same question of law as the prior decision. When a court overrules a previous decision, it negates the value of that decision as a legal precedent. The overruled decision is replaced as legal precedent by the new ruling. For example, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of “separate-but-equal” in the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537: 1896). The doctrine remained intact for several decades before it underwent serious reconsideration in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Warren Court eventually overruled the doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education I (347 U.S. 483: 1954). Overruling a decision is different from reversing a decision. In the latter instance, a higher court sets aside a lower court’s judgment in the same case. The term overrule has a second application. A court that denies a motion or a point raised in court overrules that motion or point. If a lawyer objects to a certain question posed by opposing counsel at trial, for example, the court can either sustain or overrule the objection. The effect of overruling the objection is to allow the question to be asked.

Analysis and Relevance

A previous decision is overruled when a basic legal question is decided in an opposite way in a subsequent case. The doctrine of Stare Decisis (U.S.) directs that once a matter is decided, the holding should be adhered to. Thus, decisions are infrequently overruled. More often, a court chooses to distinguish a case from an incompatible precedent. This approach avoids the need to overrule a decision by placing the current case under a new or different line of precedents. On other occasions, courts overrule previous decisions without explicitly acknowledging that result. Overruling a prior decision in this way is doing so “under silence,” or sub silentio. If a court does choose to overrule a decision, it may do so in a direct and explicit manner. Consider the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Darby Lumber Company (312 U.S. 100: 1941). Among other things, the Court considered in Darby whether congressional power over interstate commerce extended to the regulation of child labor. The controlling precedent was Hammer v. Dagenhart (247 U.S. 251: 1918), in which the Court struck down congressional efforts to regulate child labor through use of the commerce power on the grounds that pro-duction preceded commerce, and that child labor was produc- tion-based. The Court explicitly overruled this thinking in Darby, saying that Hamvier was based on a premise which had “long since been abandoned.” Since the value of Hammer had been “exhausted,” the Court concluded that “it should be and now is overruled.”

Notes and References

Definition of Overrule from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

Overrule Definition

To annul; to make void. This word is frequently used to signify that a case has been decided directly opposite to a former case. When this takes place, the first-decided case is said to be overruled as a precedent, and cannot any longer be considered as of binding authority. It also signifies that a majority of the judges have decided against the opinion of the minority, in which case the latter are said to be over1:uled.

Overrule in Foreign Legal Encyclopedias

Link	Description
Overrule	Overrule in the World Legal Encyclopedia.
Overrule	Overrule in the European Legal Encyclopedia.
Overrule	Overrule in the Asian Legal Encyclopedia.
Overrule	Overrule in the UK Legal Encyclopedia.
Overrule	Overrule in the Australian Legal Encyclopedia.

For starting research in the law of a foreign country:

Browse the American Encyclopedia of Law for Overrule

Scan Overrule in the appropriate area of law:

Link	Description
Overrule	Overrule in the Family Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the IP Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Commercial Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Criminal Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Antritrust Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Bankruptcy Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Constitutional Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Tax Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the and Finance and Banking Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Employment and Labor Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Personal Injury and Tort Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.
Overrule	Overrule in the Environmental Law Portal of the American Encyclopedia of Law.

Explore other Reference Works

Resource	Description
Overrule in the Dictionaries	Overrule in our legal dictionaries
http://lawi.us/overrule	The URI of Overrule (more about URIs)
Overrule related entries	Find related entries of Overrule

Legal Issue for Attorneys

To annul; to make void. This word is frequently used to signify that a case has been decided directly opposite to a former case. When this takes place, the first-decided case is said to be overruled as a precedent, and cannot any longer be considered as of binding authority. It also signifies that a majority of the judges have decided against the opinion of the minority, in which case the latter are said to be over1:uled.

Access Points to the American Encyclopedia of Law

Access to the Encyclopedia is provided by alphabetical arrangement of entries, table of cases, table of laws, briefs and tables of contents.

Legal Thesaurus Dictionary

Because some legal concepts are too complicated to compress to a single word or term, the legal thesaurus dictionary allows the reader to search for groups of terms, including synonyms, antonyms, expanded legal meanings and other terms the reader is likely to use. The resource includes lists, synonym rings , subject categories, taxonomies and a number of schemes.

Legal Indexes

The Index is a collection of entries to allow users to locate information in the Lawi Projects. After write down relevant words and phrases that you need, begin looking up the words and phrases using the index until you have located an applicable subject to review.

Indexes of All Encyclopedias:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Z

Index	Description
General Index	Index of general information about the Encyclopedia
Classified index	Headings arranged on the basis of relations among concepts represented by headings, based on the Lawi Classification Scheme
Topical Index	A comprehensive and easy guide to the topics of the legal Encyclopedia
Citation Index	Index of links between citing and cited entries
Subject Index	Identify and describe the subjects of the Encyclopedia
Alphabetical Index	A-Z Index of all the Entries
Thematic Index	Correlation of terms in a meaningful hierarchical order
Permutation Index	A type of index in which significant words in the titles function as subject headings
Browse Index	Browse the Encyclopedia by Index
Sitemap Index	Sitemap Index, including Taxonomies

Notice

This definition of Overrule Is based on the The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary . This definition needs to be proofread..

Overrule