Supreme Court Overturns Are Rare

A Pew analysis of Library of Congress and Supreme Court Database records finds fewer than 1% of Supreme Court rulings (236 of 29,202 through 2024) explicitly overturn an earlier decision, and only about 1–2% of merits decisions in recent multi‑decade slices do so. The piece shows overturns clustered in particular eras and stresses that the court accepts far fewer cases today than petitioned, so reversals are both rare and concentrated. — This matters because it reframes debates about judicial instability: overturns are uncommon but carry outsized policy weight, so public debate should focus on specific high‑impact reversals rather than a generalized narrative of frequent judicial reversal.