Glossary
Vacated
An appellate ruling that erases the lower court's decision without necessarily declaring it wrong. Often used when circumstances have changed or when a higher court wants the lower court to redo its analysis.
Vacating is technically different from reversing, though they often have similar effects. A reversal typically means the lower court was wrong on the merits. Vacating can mean a lot of things: the case is now moot, the legal landscape changed, the lower court used the wrong analytical framework, etc.
Once vacated, the lower court's decision has no legal force. The case usually returns to the lower court for further proceedings.