How to Read a U.S. Supreme Court Opinion (short)

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https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/publications/teaching-legal-docs/how-to-read-a-u-s--supreme-court-opinion/#:~:text=The%20syllabus%20appears%20first%2C%20before,get%20to%20the%20Supreme%20Court

May 04, 2022

How to Read a U.S. Supreme Court Opinion

Reading a U.S. Supreme Court opinion can be intimidating. The average opinion includes 4,751 words, and is one of approximately 75 issued each year. It might be reassuring, however, to know that opinions contain similar parts and tend to follow a simi­lar format. There are also useful things to identify amid the pages to help focus reading. Here is a basic guide for read­ing a U.S. Supreme Court opinion.

Identify the parts

Typically, a U.S. Supreme Court opinion is comprised of one or more, or all, of the following parts:

Syllabus

The syllabus appears first, before the main opinion. It is not part of the official opinion, but rather, a sum­mary added by the Court to help the reader better understand the case and the decision. The syllabus out­lines the facts of the case and the path that the case has taken to get to the Supreme Court. The last por­tion of the syllabus sometimes sum­marizes which justice authored the main opinion, which justices joined in the main opinion, and which jus­tices might have issued concurring or dissenting opinions.

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Where to find U.S. Supreme Court Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court www.supremecourt.gov/opinions
Legal Information Institute www.law.cornell.edu
Oyez Project www.oyez.org

More at link.