A court decision is a ruling that is made by the judge in a case. The ruling is based on the facts of the case and the law as it pertains to that case. The decision can be in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant. The decision can be in the form of a judgment or an order. The decisions are then recorded and published. The decision then becomes part of the legal system and can be cited in future cases.
Most Supreme Court decisions have a “syllabus” or summary prepared by the Reporter of Decisions, which outlines the Court’s decision and some of its reasoning. At the end of the syllabus, there may be one or more Justices’ opinions in the case. If a Justice writes a dissenting opinion, it usually explains why they disagree with the majority’s decision and why they think the Court should have reached a different conclusion. Dissenting opinions are important and can often be used as the foundation for future Court decisions to overturn earlier ones. Justice John Marshall Harlan, for example, wrote more than 120 dissenting opinions.
Sometimes, only four or fewer Justices write the main opinion in a case, which is known as a plurality opinion. It is important to count the number of Justices who wrote the main opinion, as this can have a significant impact on the outcome of the case. For example, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court held that a pregnant woman’s right to have an abortion is protected by the Constitution and that state laws criminalizing the procedure violate that constitutional right. The decision relied on several previous Supreme Court decisions.
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