A court decision is a legal determination reached by a judge or judges that determines the rights and duties of parties to a case. A court decision can be a simple written statement or an elaborate written document that includes a summary of facts, discussion of relevant laws, the court’s reasoning of how those laws apply to the case, and the court’s order telling parties what they should do. The Court’s decisions are published in the United States Supreme Court Reporter. The Supreme Court has a variety of different types of cases that it hears each year. The Court usually issues elaborate written decisions on a very small percentage of those cases.
These written decisions are typically composed of a “syllabus” and one or more opinions. A syllabus provides the reader with background information on a case, including its history in the lower courts, and outlines some of the conclusions that the Court reached and why it reached those conclusions. The syllabus often lists the different opinions in the case, identifying their authors and the Justices who joined them. Sometimes a Justice who disagrees with the majority opinion will write a separate dissenting opinion. This explains the Justice’s reasoning of why the majority was wrong in the case. Justice John Marshall Harlan, for example, wrote more than 120 dissents during his time on the Court.
The main portion of a court decision, the part that actually makes law, begins with the section labeled “Opinion.” The sections that appear before the Opinion are simply helpful aids for reading and understanding a Court decision. In many cases, the Opinion contains a “plurality” or “majority” of Justices’ names. This is important for interpreting the decision.
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