Phelps Dodge Corp. v. Arizona Department of Water Resources

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• defining obiter 2 dictum as “[a] judicial comment made during the course of delivering a judicial opinion, 3 but one that is unnecessary to the decision in the case and therefore not precedential”
• “[W]hile diversion may have been necessary to effect a statutory beneficial use prior to the addition of wildlife and recreational use into accepted beneficial uses, it was not a necessity thereafter.”
• “‘Obiter dictum’ . . . is ‘[a] judicial comment made during the course of delivering a judicial opinion, but one that is unnecessary to the decision in the case and therefore not precedential (although it may be considered persuasive).’” (citation omitted)
• where an opinion’s “language indicates an express declaration that 27 the court intended its finding not merely as an expostulation . . . but as a rule to guide 28 [future conduct] . . . [it] should be followed absent a cogent reason for departing from it”
• explaining difference between judicial and obiter dicta
• defining different types of dicta

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).