Some of those judges had been waiting to see what the Supreme Court would do. The court’s instruction Monday was: Proceed. Technically, the Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t dictate how those lower court cases should come out. But it also sends a signal that’s hard for lower court judges to ignore. “It’s inevitable that judges on lower courts will be thinking about what this means,” said University of Michigan law professor Sam Bagenstos. “Lower court judges hate to be reversed. They’re always trying to predict what the Supreme Court will do, and I’d be shocked if they aren’t taking this into account.”