throwaway-bzOxW

Not disagreeing with your original comment, but my guess is the justices phrased what they said during confirmations in such a way that they would still agree with it now.

"It is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court, entitled the respect under principles of stare decisis" - I'm no expert, but according to Wikipedia: "A court may overturn its own precedent, but should do so only if a strong reason exists to do so, and even in that case, should be guided by principles from superior, lateral, and inferior courts."

So I suspect they said "settled as a precedent" knowing that settled and reaffirmed precedents have the possibility of being overturned while still following "principles of stare decisis".