Have Supreme Court Justices ever written a decision together were more than one Justice is named as the author of the opinion other than Planned Parenthood v. Casey or cases where the authors are un-named?
I think that there is one person who is credited with delivering the opinion of the court and others will concur or dissent. In PP vs. Casey, Kennedy delivered the opinion, and Blackmun and Stevens concurred. This happens all the time.
The story behind Flood vs. Kuhn (baseball antitrust, 1972) is that Harry Blackmun, in his introduction, mentioned a few ballplayers by name, and the other justices wanted their favorites mentioned as well, so it ended up like this:
Then there are the many names, celebrated for one reason or another, that have sparked the diamond and its environs and that have provided tinder for recaptured thrills, for reminiscence and comparisons, and for conversation and anticipation in-season and off-season: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Henry Chadwick, Eddie Collins, Lou Gehrig, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Hooper, Goose Goslin, Jackie Robinson, Honus Wagner, Joe McCarthy, John McGraw, Deacon Phillippe, Rube Marquard, Christy Mathewson, Tommy Leach, Big Ed Delahanty, Davy Jones, Germany Schaefer, King Kelly, Big Dan Brouthers, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Wee Willie Keeler, Big Ed Walsh, Jimmy Austin, Fred Snodgrass, Satchel Paige, Hugh Jennings, Fred Merkle, Iron Man McGinnity, Three-Finger Brown, Harry and Stan Coveleski, Connie Mack, Al Bridwell, Red Ruffing, Amos Rusie, Cy Young, Smokey Joe Wood, Chief Meyers, Chief Bender, Bill Klem, Hans Lobert, Johnny Evers, Joe Tinker, Roy Campanella, Miller Huggins, Rube Bressler, Dazzy Vance, Edd Roush, Bill Wambsganss, Clark Griffith, Branch Rickey, Frank Chance, Cap Anson, [407 U.S. 258, 263] Nap Lajoie, Sad Sam Jones, Bob O’Farrell, Lefty O’Doul, Bobby Veach, Willie Kamm, Heinie Groh, Lloyd and Paul Waner, Stuffy McInnis, Charles Comiskey, Roger Bresnahan, Bill Dickey, Zack Wheat, George Sisler, Charlie Gehringer, Eppa Rixey, Harry Heilmann, Fred Clarke, Dizzy Dean, Hank Greenberg, Pie Traynor, Rube Waddell, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell, Old Hoss Radbourne, Moe Berg, Rabbit Maranville, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove. 3 The list seems endless.
There’s one case (and as I recall only one case, according to my undergrad civil rights law prof) where all nine justices were listed as authors. I can’t remember the name of the case, but it was either a fair housing or school equality case.
There are also Per Curiam opinions such as Bush v. Gore which are short opinions issued on short notice to settle a particular issue with very little precedential weight. Those do not list an author, and are generally accompanied by concurrences to explain the individual justices’ opinions.
They write unattributed opinions all the time, they are called *per curiam *opinions
The decison in Casey was delivered by O’Connor, Kennedy, and Souter. What I am trying to find out is if this is unique. Are there any other cases where more than one Justice is named as delivering the opinion?
That doesn’t mean all three of them wrote it. The three of them presented the main opinion in the case. The other six justices all concurred with parts of the opinion and dissented with other parts.
No, he’s correct, Otto. While all cases but the two named below are either delivered per curiam – an unsigned opinion issued in the name of the court, usually announced by the Chief, or else officially written* and orally delivered by the single author of the majority opinion, with whom at least four other justices “join” to make it the majority opinion, in two opinions (one of the Brown v. Board of Education decisions and Casey) multiple authors were attributed to the majority opinion. Kennedy, O’Connor, and Souter collaborated on the Casey majority, and, in a break with practice since Marbury v. Madison, delivered pieces of it together to underscore that it was a joint decision by a moderate, a moderate conservative, and a moderate liberal. In the Brown decision, it was a unanimous decision signed (as opposed to joined in) by all nine members of the court and delivered orally by Chief Justice Warren – making clear that the court was unanimous in taking the stance they did.
- “Officially written” means the justice who has credit for writing the decision in the published record of the decision. Actually, of course, decisions are often written, in the main, by the law clerks of the justices, and there’s quite a bit of evidence that many major decisions incorporate language from other justices than the official author – U.S. v. Nixon, the Watergate tapes case, was notable for the fact that all nine justices contributed elements to the decision officially written by Cheif Justice Burger, and the story behind this was documented in Bernstein and Woodward’s The Brethren.