Cite as: 532 U. S. 557 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
as the Court of Appeals noted, this Court did not expressly overrule Evans itself. 64 F. 3d, at 650. The Court of Appeals added that, if "changes in judicial doctrine" had significantly undermined Evans' holding, this "Court itself would have overruled the case." Ibid. Noting that this case is like Evans (involving judges appointed before enactment of the tax), not like O'Malley (involving judges appointed after enactment of the tax), the Court of Appeals held that Evans controlled the outcome. 64 F. 3d, at 650. Hence application of both Medicare and Social Security taxes to these preenactment judges violated the Compensation Clause.
The Court of Appeals was correct in applying Evans to the instant case, given that "it is this Court's prerogative alone to overrule one of its precedents." State Oil Co. v. Khan, 522 U. S. 3, 20 (1997); see also Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/American Express, Inc., 490 U. S. 477, 484 (1989). Nonetheless, the court below, in effect, has invited us to reconsider Evans. We now overrule Evans insofar as it holds that the Compensation Clause forbids Congress to apply a generally applicable, nondiscriminatory tax to the salaries of federal judges, whether or not they were appointed before enactment of the tax.
The Court's opinion in Evans began by explaining why the Compensation Clause is constitutionally important, and we begin by reaffirming that explanation. As Evans points out, 253 U. S., at 251-252, the Compensation Clause, along with the Clause securing federal judges appointments "during good Behavior," U. S. Const., Art. III, § 1—the practical equivalent of life tenure—helps to guarantee what Alexander Hamilton called the "complete independence of the courts of justice." The Federalist No. 78, p. 466 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961). Hamilton thought these guarantees necessary because the Judiciary is "beyond comparison the weakest of the three" branches of Government. Id., at 465-466. It has "no influence over either the sword or the purse." Id., at 465.
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