Look up holding in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The holding is a court's determination of a matter of law based on the issue presented in the particular case. In other words: under this law, with these facts, this result. It is the same as a 'decision' made by the judge; however "decision" can also refer to the judge's entire opinion, containing, for example, a discussion of facts, issues, and law as well as the holding. The holding is the "legal principle to be drawn from the opinion (decision) of the court."[1]
- ^ Black's Law Dictionary, p. 658 (5th ed. 1979) (parenthetical in the original).