The phrase "a first ruling" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in legal contexts to refer to an initial decision made by a court or authority on a particular matter.
Example: "The judge issued a first ruling on the case, setting the stage for further proceedings."
Alternatives: "an initial ruling" or "a preliminary ruling."
Just before a deadline set late last year to comply with a first ruling against the FSC law, Congress squeezed through a slapdash replacement.
"In Germany you get a first ruling by a regional court rather quickly - this litigation started in April this year.
And like many areas of science where mathematics makes a first ruling on what's possible before the engineers arrive, it gets weirder: how about a "spacetime cloak" outlined in the Journal of Optics that can hide events in time?
Two years later, the ASA made a second ruling.
Two years after the Swann decision, the Supreme Court made a second ruling that restricted the use of busing.
A second ruling under the 1996 law, also confusingly called Williams v. Taylor, No. 98-8384, was more convoluted, producing two controlling opinions.
The department plans to take the case to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, and has already appealed a second ruling against the law to an appellate court in Richmond, Va.
In a second ruling, the court upheld a lower court decision that a jury must determine whether Mr. Silverstein is entitled to one or two payments under the other policy, known as a Travelers form.
Later in the day, a second ruling, issued by a panel known as the Board of Immigration Appeals, granted Jamal another stay in response to an emergency petition from his lawyers.
In a second ruling yesterday, Judge Harmon also held that the defendants in the case could not shield their records, testimony and other potential evidence from public view, denying their request for a sweeping protective order.
He made a second ruling after the jury had already found the company liable for triple damages and other fees regarding the work paid for with the Treasury check.
