per curiam

[ per kyoor-ee-am ]

adverb

, Law.

1. (of an opinion or decision) by the court as a whole rather than in the name of a particular judge:

   a judgment rendered per curiam.

Word History and Origins

Origin of per curiam¹

< Medieval Latin: literally, through the court

Example Sentences

They took this case and treated it as if it were a cert petition, which means they were going to hear it on the merits, and they issued a per curiam decision, meaning a decision without giving any author.

From Slate

But as the court has been drawn into Trump’s legal woes, it has become front-page news in recent weeks, both for the strikingly political and deeply consequentialist “per curiam” decision to rewrite the text of the 14th Amendment to keep Donald Trump on the ballot last month, and its even more harmful decision to allow his D.C. criminal trial to be delayed pending Supreme Court review, even though everyone and his cat knows that Trump’s immunity theory is risible and untenable.

From Slate

The court’s opinion was an unsigned per curiam, which means no single justice has authorship.

From Seattle Times

She wrote a separate concurrence that joined only that part of the per curiam that addresses Colorado and noted that she would have gone no further.

From Seattle Times

On the self-executing issue, the unsigned majority “per curiam” decision is not merely evasion, but error.

From Salon