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(Lat., “by the court”), an opinion rendered by the whole court or a majority of it, rather than being attributed to an individual judge. Originally used for summary dispositions of cases, the per curiam has sometimes been the vehicle for major opinions, for example, Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969).
— William M. Wiecek
Per curiam is Latin for “by the court.” An opinion designated by the Supreme Court as a body, instead of by one member, is called a per curiam decision. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), for example, the opinion of the Court was not attributed to a particular justice. Instead, it was announced as a per curiam decision. This kind of opinion is used to summarily deal with an issue in a concise and unsigned opinion that signifies the general authority of the Court.
[Latin, By the court.] A phrase used to distinguish an opinion of the whole court from an opinion written by any one judge.
Sometimes per curiam signifies an opinion written by the chief justice or presiding judge; it can also refer to a brief oral announcement of the disposition of a case by the court that is unaccompanied by a written opinion.
A per curiam decision (or opinion) is a ruling handed down by a court with multiple judges in which the decision was made by the court acting as a whole, as opposed to statements made by individual judges. The literal meaning of this legal term is "by the court".
Most decisions on the merits by the U.S. Supreme Court (and other appellate courts in the U.S.) take the form of one or more opinions signed by individual justices (and joined in by others). Even when such signed opinions are unanimous, they are not termed "per curiam." "Per curiam" decisions are given that label by the Court itself and tend to be short. Usually, though not always, they deal with issues the Court views as relatively non-controversial. However, per curiam opinions are not necessarily unanimous and are sometimes accompanied by dissenting opinions. E.g., Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000). Bush v. Gore is unique in its use of a "per curiam" decision because it has been alleged that none of the justices wanted to be associated with its authorship, given the highly-charged politics of the 2000 Presidential election.[1][2]
The top appellate courts of most states (e.g., Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina) use the same terminology.
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Copyrights:
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 | US Supreme Court. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Copyright © 1992, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| US Government Guide. The Oxford Guide to the United States Government. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2002 by John J. Patrick, Richard M. Pious, Donald M. Ritchie. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Per curiam decision". Read more |
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