Also known as: gratis dicta · dictum
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A voluntary statement or assertion made without obligation to speak. In judicial opinions, a court's expression of a legal principle broader than required to resolve the case or discussion of issues not presented by the record.
Giana Greco sent a signed letter offering to lease warehouse space to Grandview Holdings. The parties later formed an oral lease on the same terms. When Grandview Holdings sued to enforce the lease, the court noted in passing that the pre-contract letter could serve as a memorandum even though the point was unnecessary to its holding on adoption of the writing.
The government sought to enjoin publication of classified documents by New York Times Co. After ruling that prior restraint was unavailable, the court added that the First Amendment would also bar post-publication criminal sanctions in most circumstances, a point not required for the injunction decision.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. challenged an environmental regulation. The court upheld the agency action under the controlling statute. It then remarked that courts should rarely impose additional procedural requirements beyond those in the APA, even though the parties had not briefed that broader issue.
A public official sued New York Times v. Sullivan for libel. The court held that actual malice must be shown. It added that the same standard would likely apply to public figures who are not officials, a question the record did not present.
Kelo, et al. challenged the city's taking of their homes for private redevelopment. The court upheld the taking as serving a public purpose. It then suggested that states could adopt stricter public-use definitions if they wished, a policy observation unnecessary to the federal constitutional holding.
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission involved challenges to federal election laws. The court upheld most provisions. It observed in passing that certain state contribution limits might raise different constitutional questions, though those limits were not before the Court.
A holding is the legal rule necessary to decide the case presented. A gratis dictum is a broader statement or discussion of points not required for that decision and therefore lacks precedential force on the unnecessary issues.
Supporting sources
Yes. The Restatement explains that a signed pre-contract offer may constitute a sufficient memorandum, and a court's gratuitous remark confirming that possibility does not change the underlying rule.
Supporting sources
Courts may address related legal principles to guide future litigants or clarify doctrine, even when the precise issue is not raised by the record or essential to the outcome.
Supporting sources
…established as a common-law crime.[^maj-26] This is of some importance because while most American courts ruled, in holding or dictum, that abortion of an unquickened fetus was not criminal under their received common law,[^maj-27] others followed Coke in stating that abortion of a quick fetus was a "misprision," a term…