Supreme Court - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... In this case the opinions are called concurring.
Divided decisions are more common. If from one to four Justices dissent on the majority decision, the Chief Justice will assign a majority opinion that speaks for the consensus of the Court. In addition, a minority opinion will be assigned to one of the Justices who voted against the majority, termed the dissenting opinion. This Justice explains the reason they and possibly other dissenters saw legal reason to vote against the majority.
In a very divided decision those Justices who voted with the majority did not agree as to why. In addition, those who voted with the minority didn’t agree with each other either. In this very rare instance, multiple Justices may write separate opinions, possibly all nine. Some may write additions to other opinions if their view of the legalities concerning the case was close but not the same.
In a per curium decision the opinion(s) may be unanimous and are usually very short in length. These are the cases that either was not important enough to be heard by the highest court or a technical issue precluded the Justices from hearing the ...Download file to see next pagesRead More