Imagine a circuit court publishes a decision holding A and B, where both holdings A and B are considered necessary to the court’s outcome. The Supreme Court grants cert, reverses judgment on the ground that B was wrong, and announces a new methodology by which the circuit court did not have to reach A to reach the issue in B.
Here’s the question: Is the circuit court holding A still binding law in the circuit? Or is it just dicta that is not binding under circuit court internal operating procedures? I get the feeling that I should know this, but off the top of my head I don’t (and it’s one of those research questions that’s relatively hard to query in Westlaw). I’m figuring that some of our super-law-geek VC readers must know. . . .