"A past decision’s reaffirmance strengthens its precedential weight, but like any judicial holding, that reaffirmance must be explicit. “Most important, the court must have decided the issue for which the precedent is claimed; it cannot merely have discussed it in dictum, ignored it, or assumed the point without ruling upon it.” To be counted as a “reaffirmance,” the issue ofRoe’s validity as a precedent must have been “brought to the attention of the court” and “ruled upon” through a “dispositive judgment” or a “determinate holding.” Only three Supreme Court decisions meet this standard. 1. In Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, the Court voted 6–3 that while “the doctrine of stare decisis [is] perhaps never entirely persuasive on a constitutional question...[w]e respect it today, and reaffirm Roe v. Wade.” 2. In Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,149 the Court voted 5–4 to reaffirm “the general principles laid down in Roe and in Akron.” 3. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court also voted 5–4 to reaffirm Roe’s “central holding” that “the Constitution protects a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy in its early stages.” By declining margins, therefore, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed some aspect of Roe v. Wade three times in nearly 50 years. As Senator Orrin Hatch (R–UT) has written, there is nothing “super” about Roe v. Wade as a precedent. Should the Court reconsider whether Roe remains a valid precedent, it will apply traditional principles ofstare decisis to determine if Roe should be retained or abandoned. The case to be argued on December 1, 2021, provides that opportunity."