The distinction between holding and dicta requires careful reading. A holding is the rule needed to reach the judgment on the presented facts. Dicta are observations not necessary to that result; they can be persuasive, especially from the Supreme Court, but do not carry the same precedential force. A broad sentence in an opinion should therefore be read in the context of the question presented, the facts the Court treated as material, and the remedy ordered.

Opinion assignment helps organize the Court's work. When the chief justice is in the majority, the chief may assign the opinion; otherwise the most senior justice in the majority assigns it. Drafts circulate, and justices may join, request revisions, or write separately. The final alignment can differ from the preliminary conference vote.

Not every disposition produces a signed majority opinion. A per curiam opinion is issued in the Court's name rather than under one justice's authorship. A plurality opinion contains the reasoning joined by the largest group but fewer than a majority. The judgment still resolves the case, but lower courts must examine the separate opinions to determine whether a controlling rationale exists.

Worked application. Five justices agree that a search violated the Fourth Amendment for the same reason, while four disagree. The five-justice reasoning controls. If five agree only on the result but divide among rationales, identifying the governing rule becomes more difficult. Courts look for a position that represents a common, narrower ground supporting the judgment, but no controlling rationale can be manufactured when the separate opinions share no such ground. Counting votes for the judgment alone may therefore fail to reveal one broad majority rule.

A test question may quote a vivid dissent and ask for the binding rule. Return to the vote alignment and the opinion joined by the controlling majority. Persuasive language and precedential authority are not the same thing.

Video lesson: Judicial Decisions: Crash Course Government and Politics #22