Court Opinion

ID: 9862819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 02:13:28.262561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:35:26.112033
License: Public Domain

BAIRD, Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in parts I through IV of the majority opinion because I agree there is no evidence to support the trial judge’s finding of a roadblock. Ante, 938 S.W.2d at 452. However, believing the remainder of the *456opinion is totally unnecessary to the resolution of the instant case and, therefore, advisory, I dissent to part V of the majority opinion. Ante, 938 S.W.2d at 452-65.
An advisory opinion is one which “adjudicates nothing, and is binding on no one.” Douglas Oil Co. v. State, 81 S.W.2d 1064, 1077 (Tex.Civ.App.1935). Consequently, this Court has consistently refrained from issuing advisory opinions. Garrett v. State, 749 S.W.2d 784, 803 (Tex.Cr.App.1986) (opinion on rehearing); Gonzales v. State, 864 S.W.2d 522, 523 (Tex.Cr.App.1993) (Baird, J., concurring). See also, Woolridge v. State, 827 S.W.2d 900, 905 (1992) (Dictum is not binding); Wiltz v. State, 863 S.W.2d 463, 466-68 (Tex.Cr.App.1993) (Miller, BAIRD, and Overstreet, JJ., concurring); and, Gordon v. State, 801 S.W.2d 899, 917 (Tex.Cr.App.1990) (Baird, J., concurring).
Part V of the majority opinion is nothing more than obiter dictum.1 The majority acknowledges this by beginning part V with:
Let us assume, arguendo, that the officers’ actions constituted a roadblock. The presence or absence of a roadblock is an interesting topic of discussion, but in the end is only tangentially relevant.
Ante, 938 S.W.2d at 452 (emphasis added). This is obviously dictum, because part IV of the majority opinion concludes by holding “there is no evidence to support either [the trial court’s or the Court of Appeals’] finding of the existence of a ‘roadblock.’ ” Ibid.
Because part V of the majority opinion is wholly advisory, I respectfully dissent to that portion of the majority opinion. Accordingly, I join only the judgment of the Court.

. Obiter dictum is defined as:
Words of an opinion entirely unnecessary for the decision of the case. ... A remark made, or opinion expressed, by a judge, in his decision upon a cause, "by the way," that is, incidentally or collaterally, and not directly upon the question before him, or upon a point not necessarily involved in the determination of the cause, or introduced by way of illustration, or analogy or argument. Such are not binding as precedent.
Blacks Law Dictionary, 6th Ed., p. 1072 (emphasis added).