Commanding precedent

Commanding precedent means that a legal decision made by a higher court must be followed by all lower courts in the same jurisdiction. It's like when your teacher tells you to do something, and then your friend sees you and asks what you're doing, and you say "My teacher told me to do this," then your friend does the same thing because your teacher is like the higher authority.

So, if a higher court makes a legal decision, like saying that a person can't be punished for something because it's protected by the Constitution, then all the lower courts in that area have to follow that decision in future cases. It's like they have to do what the higher court told them to do because they're the boss. And this is called commanding precedent.