system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: why do judges rely so heavily on precedent? can't they make their own decisions?

no two cases can be exactly identical. just because a judge ruled something in people v. whoever, does that mean that whenever circumstances are similar to that case that every future judge has to rule the same way?
gpt
Because it's important that the law be predictable.  If a judge ruled something in people v. whoever, now the citizens can know (to a certain extent) that whatever that ruling was applies to them in similar circumstances.  If judges could construe the law however they wanted in any given case, nobody would no what the law is.