The goal is to be consistent over time but it must also still maintain a reactionary posture to the cases brought before it. When there is a difference in opinion between earlier and later jurisprudence, later jurisprudence takes precedent and to be blunt, sometimes earlier courts get it wrong and later courts recognize this.
> A few years ago, the 4th Amendment protected a woman's right to privacy and therefore Abortion.
Due process clause of the 14th amendment actually was the citation under the portions of Roe v Wade not overturned by Planned Parenthood v Casey prior to them both being overturned in Dobbs. The due process clause is often used to read into law from the bench things which are not written into law by Congress or the States under the doctrine of substantive due process, and the issue with that doctrine comes down to: if Congress didn’t say it, and the States didn’t agree to it (Constitution), then is it really actually Federal law? So far the answer seems to be: temporarily yes, and on shaky ground until either Congress addresses it or a future court does. That a court can overturn its own precedents is why if we wish for them to stick, you write them into statute.
Going back to the First Amendment, most of the seeming contradictions in our free speech law really are addressed in the first 5 words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law”. Courts are not Congress, and our Judiciaries have habits and traditions that predate the Constitution and are rooted specifically in the English common law, especially among the States which is why you can be found civilly liable for defamation in most States, and then the standard is high and the extent to which it is applicable is curtailed more with the First Amendment than it would be without it.
> A few years ago, the 4th Amendment protected a woman's right to privacy and therefore Abortion.
Due process clause of the 14th amendment actually was the citation under the portions of Roe v Wade not overturned by Planned Parenthood v Casey prior to them both being overturned in Dobbs. The due process clause is often used to read into law from the bench things which are not written into law by Congress or the States under the doctrine of substantive due process, and the issue with that doctrine comes down to: if Congress didn’t say it, and the States didn’t agree to it (Constitution), then is it really actually Federal law? So far the answer seems to be: temporarily yes, and on shaky ground until either Congress addresses it or a future court does. That a court can overturn its own precedents is why if we wish for them to stick, you write them into statute.
Going back to the First Amendment, most of the seeming contradictions in our free speech law really are addressed in the first 5 words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law”. Courts are not Congress, and our Judiciaries have habits and traditions that predate the Constitution and are rooted specifically in the English common law, especially among the States which is why you can be found civilly liable for defamation in most States, and then the standard is high and the extent to which it is applicable is curtailed more with the First Amendment than it would be without it.