In law, a slip sheet — nearly always called a slip opinion — is the first version of a court’s written decision, released to the public on or near the day the ruling is announced. It contains the full text of the majority opinion along with any concurrences or dissents, but it is not the final, official version. The text can still change before it appears in the permanent bound reporter, and sometimes those changes matter.
What a Slip Opinion Contains
The name comes from the old practice of printing each new decision on loose, unbound sheets of paper that could slip into a temporary collection until a hardcover reporter volume was ready. Today the “sheets” are almost always PDFs posted to a court’s website within minutes of the ruling.
A slip opinion includes the case name, the docket number, the date of the decision, the names of the justices or judges who participated, the full text of the majority or plurality opinion, and any separate opinions. At the Supreme Court of the United States, it also carries a prefatory syllabus prepared by the Reporter of Decisions summarizing the holding. The syllabus is not part of the court’s opinion and does not carry the force of law.
Courts release these documents quickly because lawyers, lower courts, agencies, and the public need to know what was decided without waiting months or years for formal publication. A ruling handed down today can affect an argument scheduled tomorrow.
Why a Slip Opinion Is Preliminary
Every Supreme Court slip opinion is stamped with a notice warning that the text is subject to formal revision before publication in the United States Reports.1Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the Court – 2025 That notice exists because the slip opinion is only the first step in a longer publication process.
After the slip opinion comes a batch compilation called advance sheets, then, at the Supreme Court, a soft-cover preliminary print, and finally the hardcover bound volume of the United States Reports. Only the bound volumes contain the final, authoritative text. The gap between a slip opinion and its appearance in a bound volume can stretch roughly five years. The slip version stays posted on the court’s website until it is replaced by the edited version prepared for the United States Reports.2Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions
The same pattern holds in the U.S. Courts of Appeals and in state supreme courts, which release their decisions as slip opinions on the day of ruling and later issue final reporter versions.
Minor Fixes Versus Substantive Changes
Most of what gets corrected between a slip opinion and the bound volume is mechanical: typographical errors, citation format, grammar, pagination. The Supreme Court’s revision notice explicitly invites readers to flag typographical and formal errors so they can be fixed before the preliminary print.
Substantive changes also happen, and this is where relying on a slip opinion carries real risk. Chief Justice Taney added approximately eighteen pages to his majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford between announcement and final publication. More recently, justices revised opinions in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and EPA v. EME Homer City Generation (2014) in ways that went beyond fixing typos. These revisions occurred under the general umbrella of the standard revision notice.
If you quote language from a slip opinion in a brief or memorandum and that language is later revised, your citation points to text that no longer exists in the authoritative version. Most practitioners treat slip opinions as reliable for the holding and general reasoning but verify specific wording once the preliminary print or bound volume is available.
The publication process also adds material that is not in the slip opinion at all. The Reporter of Decisions and commercial publishers add headnotes, topical classifications, and final pagination. Headnotes are not written by the judges and carry no legal authority, and courts prohibit citing them as if they were part of the opinion.
How to Cite a Slip Opinion
When a decision is too recent to have a permanent reporter citation, cite it using identifying information that lets a reader locate the exact document: the case name, the docket number, the court that issued the decision, and the full date of the decision (month, day, and year). If the opinion is available through an electronic database, the database identifier replaces the “slip op.” designation.
For a pinpoint cite to a specific passage, use the page number within the slip opinion itself. Those page references are inherently temporary, because the slip version lacks the permanent pagination of a bound reporter.
Once the opinion is published in its final reporter volume, update the citation to that official source. Courts expect lawyers to use the most authoritative citation available, and continuing to cite the slip version after the bound volume exists reads as either carelessness or unfamiliarity with the published text.
Where to Find Slip Opinions
The most reliable source for any slip opinion is the issuing court’s own website. The U.S. Supreme Court posts slip opinions at supremecourt.gov on the day they are announced and keeps them available until replaced by the edited version.1Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the Court – 2025 Federal circuit courts and most state appellate courts maintain similar pages.
Commercial databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis also carry slip opinions and typically flag them with a notice that the text has not been finalized. These platforms often update their copies as corrections are issued, which is useful if you need to track changes. Free tools like Google Scholar index many slip opinions as well, though they may not update as quickly when revisions occur.
Paper copies can still be obtained from a court clerk’s office, though this is increasingly rare. A printed copy reflects the text as of the date printed and will not automatically pick up later corrections, so for anything you plan to rely on, check the current version on the court’s site before you cite it.