Per curiam
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Majority opinion |
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Plurality opinion
Concurring opinion
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Per curiam opinion
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In law, a per curiam decision (or opinion) is a ruling issued by an appellate court of multiple judges in which the decision rendered is made by the court (or at least, a majority of the court) acting collectively and unanimously. In contrast to regular opinions, a per curiam does not list the individual judge responsible for authoring the decision, but minority dissenting and concurring decisions are signed.
Per curiams are not the only type of decision that can reflect the opinion of the court. Other types of decisions can also reflect the opinion of the entire court, such as unanimous decisions, in which the opinion of the court is expressed with an author listed. The Latin term literally means "by the court".
The decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are usually not per curiam. Their decisions more commonly take the form of one or more opinions signed by individual justices which are then joined in by other justices. Unanimous and signed opinions are not considered per curiam decisions, as only the court can officially designate opinions as per curiam. Per curiam decisions tend to be short. The designation is stated at the beginning of the opinion. Single line per curiam decisions are generally issued without concurrence or dissent by a hung Supreme Court (i.e. a 4-4 decision), when the Court has a vacant seat.
The notable exception to the usual characteristics for a per curiam decision is the case of Bush v. Gore. Although it was per curiam, there were multiple concurrences and dissents.
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