obiter dictum


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Obiter Dictum

[Latin, By the way.] Words of an opinion entirely unnecessary for the decision of the case. A remark made or opinion expressed by a judge in a decision upon a cause, "by the way", that is, incidentally or collaterally, and not directly upon the question before the court or upon a point not necessarily involved in the determination of the cause, or introduced by way of illustration, or analogy or argument. Such are not binding as precedent.

Cross-references

Court Opinion.

obiter dictum

something said by a judge in a decision that is not essential to the decision and does not form part of the RATIO DECIDENDI.
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Precisely because the agents carefully clarified Davis's first reference to counsel, the majority's rejection of the duty to clarify is, technically speaking, mere obiter dictum.
'Maybe I should talk to a lawyer': ambiguous invocations of Miranda
The issue has been repeatedly brought up as the 1995 Supreme Court ruling says in its obiter dictum commentary that providing local suffrage to foreigners with permanent resident status is not prohibited under the Constitution, and that it is a matter for the Diet to take up.
Japanese editorial excerpts
9) That holding left us with the unanswered question: Why did the great Justice Bleckley invoke or enliven, in obiter dictum, Goldsmith's tipsy coachman, when it was not necessary?
Obiter dictum notwithstanding, close to a century later, the Supreme Court of Florida, reminded of Justice Bleckley's quote from Goldsmith's Retaliation, (10) expressly adopted Georgia's common law tipsy coachman doctrine.
Tipping the ole tipsy coachman over in his grave: an inequity of appellate review

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