How is the justice who writes the Supreme Court’s majority opinion chosen?

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A person ascends the steps of the west facade of the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., with its tall columns and a round fountain in the foreground. — Supreme Court of the United States The west facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.

The process for determining which justice authors the Supreme Court of the United States’s majority opinion is governed by long-standing tradition.1

If the chief justice is a member of the majority, they hold the authority to decide whether they will author the opinion themselves or assign the task to another justice in the majority. If the chief justice is in the minority, the responsibility for assigning the opinion falls to the longest-serving member of the majority.12