united-states us-supreme-court
Before a Supreme Court opinion is released, how many rounds of rebuttals are allowed?
<p>When a majority opinion has been written, it is shared with the dissenting justices, who then write the dissenting opinion (basically a rebuttal to the majority opinion).</p>
<p>According to an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/samuel-alito-stephen-breyer-guns/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a> about the <em>New York State Rifle &amp; Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen</em> Second Amendment case, Justice Alito wrote his own opinion which was a rebuttal to the dissenting opinion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In his concurrence in the gun case he took on the liberal dissent penned by Justice Stephen Breyer and joined by Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan. &quot;Much of the dissent seems designed to obscure the specific question that the Court has decided,&quot; Alito complained. [...] Alito wrote that &quot;it is hard to see what legitimate purpose can possibly be served by most of the dissent's lengthy introductory section.&quot; [...] He said the &quot;real thrust of the dissent&quot; was that &quot;guns are bad.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Then Justice Breyer modified the dissenting opinion to rebut Alito's opinion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Breyer -- in writing what may be one of his last big dissents before retirement -- struck back. &quot;I am not simply saying that 'guns are bad,'&quot; he said. But he said that balancing &quot;lawful uses&quot; against the &quot;dangers of firearms&quot; is primarily the responsibility of elected bodies such as legislatures. &quot;Justice Alito asks why I have begun my opinion by reviewing some of the dangers and challenges posed by gun violence,&quot; he said. Breyer said he did so because the &quot;question of firearm regulation presents a complex problem -- one that should be solved by legislatures and not courts.&quot;</p>
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<p>Was Alito allowed to modify his opinion to rebut Breyer's modifications? At what point do the rebuttals stop?</p>

<p>There is no limit, as the content of opinions can change up until they are published.  The Justices read every draft of every other justice and will modify their arguments upon each draft to address their dissent or concurance (the former is they disagree with the draft entirely, while the later is &quot;They are right, but for the wrong reasons&quot; or &quot;They are right, but neglected to include this opinion&quot;).</p>
<p>As a rule, the Chief Justice is charged with writing the opinion for the side he is in support of and the Senior most Associate Justice on the opposing side is charged with writing the opinion for their side.  Both duties can be delegated by the appropriate justice as they please (either they are busy or maybe think another member is a better writer of the opinions) and occasionally the ability to write the draft opinion may make justices vote differently.  Votes can also shift at any point prior to publishing the opinion, though there has to be some finalization of the votes prior to end of term (Last full week of June) as the opinions of a term must be published before the term's end.</p>
