Supreme Court opinions can run more than 100 pages and use legal terms that intimidate many readers. But they are written to be read, and with a little guidance anyone can understand what the Court decided and why. Reading the opinion itself, rather than relying only on news summaries, shows the reasoning and the disagreements behind major decisions.
This guide walks through the parts of an opinion and how to make sense of them.
The syllabus, prepared by the Court's Reporter of Decisions, summarizes the facts, the lower court's ruling, and the Court's holding and reasoning, often in numbered points. It ends with the vote line, which lists who wrote the opinion of the Court, who joined it fully or in part, and who wrote concurring or dissenting opinions. A note warns that the syllabus is not part of the opinion, so quote the opinion itself, but reading the syllabus first gives a map of the case.
The holding is the legal rule necessary to decide the case and is binding precedent under the principle of stare decisis. Statements that go beyond what was needed are called dicta and are persuasive but not binding. The final lines give the disposition. Affirmed means the lower court ruling stands, reversed means it is overturned, vacated means it is wiped away, and remanded means the case goes back for further proceedings consistent with the opinion. A reversal does not always end a case, since the lower court may still decide some issues.
The main opinion usually opens with a short statement of the question and answer, then sets out the facts and the case's path through the lower courts, and then analyzes the law in numbered parts. When at least five justices join, it is the opinion of the Court and binds lower courts. If justices agree on the result but no single rationale wins a majority, the lead opinion is a plurality, and lower courts look for the narrowest ground of agreement. A per curiam opinion is unsigned and issued for the Court as a whole.
Besides full opinions, the Court issues orders lists granting or denying review, and rulings on emergency applications, sometimes called the shadow docket. These orders are often unsigned and brief, may not explain the reasoning or reveal the vote, and are sometimes accompanied by written dissents. A denial of review does not mean the Court agreed with the lower court. Since the late 2010s, emergency rulings have played a growing role in major disputes, and readers should note whether a ruling is final or only temporary while litigation continues.
The Court releases opinions on announcement days, mostly from fall through late June or early July, and posts them immediately as slip opinions at supremecourt.gov. They are later corrected and published in the United States Reports, cited by volume and page, such as Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), meaning volume 347, page 483, decided in 1954. The case name usually lists the party that lost below and appealed first, the petitioner, followed by the respondent. Free databases and the Library of Congress offer older opinions.
A concurring opinion agrees with the result but adds different or additional reasoning. A dissent disagrees with the result. Neither is binding, but both can be influential. Justice Robert Jackson's concurrence in the 1952 steel seizure case became the standard framework for presidential power, and Justice John Marshall Harlan's lone dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 was vindicated when the Court rejected segregation in 1954. Reading the dissent is often the fastest way to understand the strongest arguments against the majority.
Follow a case from start to finish in how a Supreme Court case works, learn the yearly calendar in the Supreme Court term, or understand the different approaches justices take in judicial philosophies explained.