Chapter 4 answers

Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248.

The full citation has already introduced Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (1986), and the problem excludes another Anderson case. The named short form therefore retains a distinctive name plus volume, reporter, and current pinpoint. At signals the page location; the first page 242 need not be repeated in this short pattern.

Writing 477 U.S. 248 would use the pinpoint in a position associated with a full citation's first page. Writing Anderson, supra would apply an ineligible general cross-reference to the case. The short form also does not prove that 248 supports a new proposition; that check remains necessary.

Locate the nearby full citation, confirm that no competing Anderson identity has intervened, and compare 248 with the relied-on passage. The name should be italicized; the reporter and at-pinpoint should remain roman.

The full citation is acceptable if repetition improves clarity, but the requested named short form should show the source-specific abbreviated structure.

Use 1240-41 for the continuous span 1240 through 1241 and 199-201 for 199 through 201.

The first range retains enough initial digits in the second number to identify 1241 without repeating the common 12. The second crosses a hundreds boundary: reducing 201 to 01 would obscure rather than clarify the destination. The handbook uses a hyphen for these ranges as its stated house typography.

Do not write 1240, 1241 if you intend a continuous range, or 199-01 in an attempt to apply digit deletion mechanically. A page range must also represent pages actually inspected for the proposition, rather than uncertainty about which page matters.

Expand the shortened endpoint back to its full number. 1240-41 should reconstruct 1240 through 1241 without guessing. 199-201 should cross from the 100s to the 200s visibly. Then distinguish a continuous range from scattered pages, which use commas.

Fictional training example — not legal authority.

Use ¶ 8 and § 12(a)(2)(B). Remove at and preserve the paragraph/section symbols and all supplied subdivision characters.

The symbols already identify the kind of locator. At belongs in an ordinary short case page pinpoint such as at 248; it is not inserted before these paragraph or section locators under the taught baseline. The sequence (a)(2)(B) narrows the source from the section to successively smaller subdivisions.

Deleting the capital B, changing it to lowercase b, or flattening the parentheses could send the reader to another provision. Replacing ¶ with § would also change the coordinate's meaning. The task concerns formatting the supplied locators, not inventing a full code citation.

Read the repaired provision from left to right: section 12, subsection(a), paragraph(2), subparagraph(B). Verify that the only removed word is at and that each original locator component remains.

The symbols should be followed by appropriate spaces in the finished document: ¶ 8 and § 12(a)(2)(B).

Fictional training example — not legal authority.

Restore may: “The agency may extend the filing period if the applicant shows good cause.” Bracketing [must] discloses a substitution but changes permission into obligation, so it is not a faithful quotation.

The original both allows an extension and conditions that power on good cause. The proposed change alters the legal relationship between agency and applicant. Quotation notation describes editing; it does not authorize the writer to supply a different command. An accurate paraphrase may state that the agency has conditional extension authority.

Do not keep [must] on the theory that visible brackets make every substitution legitimate. Do not omit the good-cause condition while presenting the power as unconditional. Either edit would defeat the quotation's substantive accuracy even if its typography were impeccable.

Compare the two modal verbs and the condition. Your quotation or paraphrase should preserve permission rather than duty, retain good cause, and avoid announcing an outcome the packet never supplies.

Fictional training example — not legal authority.

“[T]he permit remains valid.”

The supplied words begin with lowercase the after 'We hold that'. The exercise asks to use those words as a complete sentence, so the new initial capital is disclosed in brackets. No initial ellipsis is required merely because the quotation starts partway through the source sentence. The quoted wording otherwise remains unchanged.

Do not put the whole word [The] in brackets when only its first letter has changed, unless another applicable convention or context warrants that larger alteration. Do not add '[We hold that]' to restore material the task intentionally excludes. The output must also avoid suggesting an unprovided source citation.

Compare each letter after the bracketed T with the supplied phrase. The only change should be capitalization at the beginning. The sentence period belongs inside the closing quotation mark under the taught punctuation convention.

Fictional training example — not legal authority.

The pinpoint is 52 n.7.

The page first locates the source sheet, and n.7 locates the numbered note on that page. Note numbers can recur across documents or versions, and a bare n.7 does not give the page information requested by this page-and-footnote pattern. This is a locator, not a complete citation to an unidentified source.

Do not invent an author, reporter, or year simply to surround the supplied pinpoint. Do not write 52 n.52 or 7 n.52 by treating the page and note number as interchangeable. If a revised edition moves the note, the old page number would need rechecking.

Find source page 52 and confirm that note 7 appears there. The final locator should contain the page, a space, and n. immediately followed by 7. Keep the document identity in the full citation when it becomes available.

Fictional training example — not legal authority.

Set the complete supplied passage as a block: single-spaced, indented at left and right, with justified text under this chapter's baseline. Remove the outer quotation marks and place the following source citation at the ordinary left margin.

The supplied passage exceeds the fifty-word threshold, so the block convention applies. Its final sentence expressly limits what the minutes establish about mailing and receipt. Preserve that sentence; block formatting changes presentation, not the permitted substantive content. Internal quotation marks, if any, would remain part of the source.

Do not invent a reporter, title, docket number, or date to fill the absent metadata. Do not indent the following citation as if it were part of the quoted source. Dropping the last sentence to shorten the block would remove a material qualification.

Compare the full block with the packet from its first word through 'her office'. It should retain the uncertainty about mailing and receipt, have no outer quotation marks, and leave the citation position outside the indentation.

Fictional training example — not legal authority.

“An applicant may obtain an extension only upon a showing of good cause. Convenience alone does not establish good cause.” Vale v. Permit Bd., 60 Fiction Rep. 200, 204 (Harbor 2025) (citation omitted).

The receiving instruction permits removal of the embedded statutory citation and specifies the disclosure. The model therefore removes only 'See Harbor Code § 9.' It preserves the permission, the good-cause condition, and the statement excluding convenience alone. No ellipsis is added solely for the removed citation, as the instruction directs. The case's first page remains 200; the quoted passage is at 204.

Dropping the final sentence would remove the supplied limit on what counts as good cause, not merely an authority reference. The instruction does not authorize that substantive alteration. A citation-omitted parenthetical would not disclose or justify it. Do not replace may with must or delete only upon while shortening the quotation.

Compare the model with all three original sentences. The middle citation sentence should be the only missing text. Both substantive sentences remain word for word; the citation retains 200, 204, Harbor, and 2025; and the required parenthetical follows the case citation.

A supported repair is: “The Court corrected the treatment of disputed evidence at summary judgment and left unresolved whether Cotton violated clearly established law. Tolan v. Cotton, 572 U.S. 650, 660 (2014) (per curiam).”

The supplied sentence at 660 expressly reserves the question the defective paragraph claims to decide. The same page describes crediting the nonmovant's evidence and reasonable inferences. A careful paraphrase can preserve both points without quoting the entire passage. Pages 657-60 are appropriate if the paragraph also describes the specific overlooked disputes.

A readability-modification parenthetical describes permitted handling of quoted material; it cannot turn an express reservation into a merits determination. Nor does per curiam mean the opinion resolved every issue in the litigation. That designation identifies the opinion's form, not the breadth of its holding.

Find a reservation in your repaired sentence and a procedural correction. The pinpoint must lead to both. If your sentence still says the Supreme Court decided the reserved clearly-established-law question, the substantive error remains.