The basics of federal stare decisis are easily understood. Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court bind all other federal courts, decisions of the various circuit courts of appeals bind the federal district courts located within each circuit, and the decisions of district courts generally have no binding precedential effect. Thus, a district court judge in California is not bound to follow precedent from any circuit court except published decisions from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has appellate jurisdiction over California's federal courts. In other words, geography-specifically whether a given district court sits within a given circuit-has substantive meaning in federal practice.
In contrast, although the California court system seems to mirror the structure of the federal courts, there is no geographical component to stare decisis under California law. Like the federal courts, California has a threetiered court system with a supreme court, courts of appeal, and superior courts. Supreme court decisions bind all lower courts-and this is true no matter how old the supreme court opinion might be. Lawrence Tractor Co. v. Carlisle Ins. Co., 202 Cal. App. 3d 949, 954 (1988); Mehr v. Superior Court, 139 Cal. App. 3d 1044, 1049 n.3 (1983). Similarly decisions from the courts of appeal bind the superior courts. There is a difference, however, in the geographic reach of California appellate decisions.
Prepare for the research portion of your Fall semester LRW Graded Memo in this hour long research refresher.
There are a few standard secondary sources that you should memorize and have in your mental checklist of possible sources:
You've found a quote you like in the opinion, concurrence, or dissent. How can you find the right page number?
If you've found a relevant case on your topic, you can find other similar cases using two tools:
In addition to allowing you to find cases that cite your case, citators (such as Citing References/KeyCite and Shepardize) assign symbols to cases, flagging any negative treatment by later cases.
It's important to be able to recognize what court decided a case because, generally, only published decisions from higher courts in your jurisdiction are binding.
Benjamin G. Shatz & Emil Petrossian, To Cite or Not to Cite? That Is the Question