In law, a per curiam decision (or opinion) is a ruling issued by an appellate court of multiple judges in which the decision rendered is made by the court (or at least, a majority of the court) acting collectively (and typically, though not necessarily, unanimously). In contrast to regular opinions, a per curiam does not list the individual judge responsible for authoring the decision, but minority concurring and dissenting opinions are signed. It is not the only type of decision that can reflect the opinion of the court. Other types of decisions can also reflect the opinion of the entire court, such as unanimous decisions in which the opinion of the court is expressed, with an author listed. The term per curiam is Latin for "by the court". United States Federal The decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are generally not per curiam, with exceptions. Their decisions more commonly take the form of one or more opinions signed by individual justices which are then joined in by other justices. Unanimous and signed opinions are not considered per curiam decisions, as only the court can officially designate opinions as per curiam. Per curiam decisions tend to be short. In modern practice, they are most commonly used in summary decisions that the Court resolves without full argument and briefing. The designation is stated at the beginning of the opinion. Single-line per curiam decisions are also issued without concurrence or dissent by a hung Supreme Court (a 4–4 decision), when the Court has a vacant seat. The notable exceptions to the usual characteristics for a per curiam decision are the cases of New York Times Co. v. United States, Bush v. Gore and Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo. Although they were per curiam, each had multiple concurrences and dissents. Examples include: Ex parte Quirin, Ray v. Blair, Toolson v. New York Yankees, One, Inc. v. Olesen, Cooper v. Aaron, Dusky v. United States, Brandenburg v. Ohio, Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, New York Times Co. v. United States, Furman v. Georgia, City of New Orleans v. Dukes, Buckley v. Valeo, Bush v. Gore, Los Angeles County v. Rettele, American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, The per curiam practices of the individual United States Courts of Appeals vary by judicial circuit. The Second Circuit, for instance, issues its nonprecedential decisions as "summary orders" that do not designate an author but