9 justices, many opinions: How the Supreme Court tells lawyers, judges and the public about its decisions and disagreements

The decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court are important to Americans, including these people demonstrating on April 25, 2024. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

When the U.S. Supreme Court issues opinions, you may hear that the nine justices reached a 6-3 or a 5-4 decision. You may also hear that certain justices wrote a concurrence or that there were multiple dissents.

Those concurrences and dissents are where Supreme Court justices express disagreement with the majority opinion.