obiter dictum
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 337 U.S. 535 - Woods v. Interstate Realty Co. · 1949Most cited · 1,300 citing opinions
where a decision rests on two or more grounds, none can be relegated to the category of obiter dictum
How the Supreme Court has restated “obiter dictum”
Each Supreme Court definition of “obiter dictum,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “obiter dictum”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “obiter dictum” — 2,084 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1924–1949
- ORIGINAL
where there are two grounds, upon either of which an appellate court may rest its decision, and it adopts both, 'the ruling on neither is obiter, but each is the judgment of the court, and of equal validity with the other.
It does not make a reason given for a conclusion in a case obiter dictum, because it is only one of two reasons for the same conclusion.