The courts
dissenting opinion
An opinion by a judge who would decide the case the other way. It does not bind anyone, but it preserves the argument and sometimes wins later.
In full
Dissents sharpen the majority by forcing it to answer, warn about consequences the majority discounts, and occasionally become the law decades later, as Harlan's lone dissent in Plessy did in Brown. They are also read closely for signals about how a court's internal balance is shifting.
Also written as: dissent
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.