The justices' questions from the bench indicated that most saw the Coker decision as limited to adult victims, with the issue of whether death could be imposed for raping a child still an open one, not governed by precedent.
New technologies have also sparked legal tussles due to the lack of legal precedent governing the services they offer.
A ruling that an employment tribunal could hear a Church of England minister's case was also made just last month, but there is no precedent governing the Catholic church.
Moreover, there is no historical precedent governing how ex-Vice President Cheney should behave as there is for ex-Presidents.
Under the Supreme Court's precedents governing municipal liability for constitutional violations, it isn't enough to prove that egregious violations occurred.
He said that while some legal rules and precedents governing the tribunals might be unclear, there was no doubt that only the judge has the authority to close the courtroom.
Campaigns should set precedents for governing.
Either a federal district judge or magistrate must closely read the petition, consider the governing legal rules and precedents, and draft a formal judicial opinion disposing of the case.
Plenty of laws and court precedents govern leases, but experts are unsure how the Sept. 11 catastrophe will affect the rules now.
In ruling Monday that the double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who runs on two carbon-fiber blades, was ineligible to qualify for the Olympics, track and field's world governing body was hoping to establish a precedent.
