Controversies were sometimes resolved by citing old traditions, by establishing precedents, or, when the sages could convene, by vote taking.
This is all the more puzzling because the Tea Party movement did not lack for useful precedents or operating models.
But then he convinced the visiting reporters that his "artistic furniture" had no precedents or peers, only imitators.
The FiveThirtyEight model, lacking useful precedents or any theory of what determines how people vote, can't really help us answer that question.
It is the political equivalent of stare decisis, the principle by which judges generally respect precedents, or things already decided, to maintain stability and social order.
The familiar and the academic conceptions have in common an opposition to invoking the authority of precedents or of abstract and ultimate principles.
It alerts the court to stop ideologically driven overruling of precedents or face the prospect of drastic action by constitutional amendment.
So his announcement yesterday came from the bench, without the usual citation of legal precedents or the disclosure of the secret testimony and legal documents that have been filed with him pertaining to the interrogations.
