The terms “decision”, “judgment”, and “ruling” are used interchangeably, but a decision is a court’s determination of the parties’ rights and obligations reached by the judge(s) in a case. A decision includes the court’s opinion (which analyzes the law) and the court’s order (which tells the lower courts what they should do).
During oral argument, attorneys for each side of the case present their case to the justices. The justices then ask questions of the attorneys and listen to the arguments. After they have all finished, the justices vote on how they think the case should be decided. If a majority of the justices agree, they write the court’s opinion. If the Justices split on how to rule, they write a dissenting opinion explaining why they disagree with the majority decision.
The main part of a court’s decision is the section labeled “Opinion.” In addition, a court’s decision may include an order and a brief written by the judges. The orders usually deal with things like whether a case should be dismissed or not, what the case is about, and how the justices want lower courts to act in cases that come before them. The court reports that contain these decisions are often called law books. The sections in the front of the law book are not considered to be part of the decision and should not be quoted or cited. They are added by the publisher to aid in understanding the decision.