A court decision is a ruling made by a court of law in a legal case. Rulings can deal with anything from housekeeping matters such as scheduling, to something more substantive and important, such as the outcome of a case. The term decision is often used interchangeably with the terms judgment, order and opinion. A judgment is a decision made by the Supreme Court on a particular case.
A judge’s decisions are often supported by past judicial decisions (also known as case law). Such decisions carry certain precedential value until legislation changes or higher court ruling overrules them. Judges choose to support their decisions with those past judicial decisions that are most relevant. Wilson and Sperber suggest that this choice may be based on normative factors.
When the Supreme Court decides a case, it typically releases several documents associated with the case. The main document is the majority opinion which states the outcome of the case and explains why the court reached that decision. Sometimes less than a majority of Justices agree on the reasoning behind the decision; when this occurs, the main opinion is called a plurality opinion. The number of Justices who agree on the reasoning is important because it can affect the impact of the case. Lastly, there may be concurring and dissenting opinions which disagree with the majority or offer further commentary to the majority’s reasoning. Sometimes a court will bundle all the different opinions together into one writing (one computer file) called a decision.
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