Controversial decisions are destabilizing the rule of law---sunsets solve.

Critics might suggest that the Rule of Law gains derived from constitutional sunsets would be attenuated by private citizens’ hesitancy to act in light of uncertain high court jurisprudence during a period of interim constitutionality. These costs may include forgone transactions and postponed rearrangements while private actors are awaiting “final” decisions from the Court on a particular government policy that affects the range of choices and decisions facing such actors. But the same costs are generated in even greater quantity when the Court issues a closely divided decision regarding a controversial government policy that inspires efforts to reverse or significantly temper the announced ruling. In that relatively common scenario, private actors are in an even more tenuous position as the uncertainty clouding the Court’s decision might unravel it at any moment, rather than at a fixed point in the future.