Chapter 9Free sample

Briefs & Motions

The receiving court decides: tables, record cites, copies, word limits and certifications.

A memo answers to the person who asked for it. A brief or motion answers to a court, whose rules decide what the paper holds: a table of authorities, record cites in the court’s form, the text of the law at issue, copies of hard-to-find rulings, a word count, sometimes a statement about AI. In a filed paper, citation is a compliance job before it is a style job. Below is one entry from a table of authorities, as the Solicitor General filed it in December 2023.

One entry in a filed table of authorities, as the brief prints it

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. NRDC, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984)................ 5, 7, 9-14, 16, 19-21, 26, 32, 36

1 case name, set as the brief’s text sets it
2 volume, reporter, first page; no pinpoint
3 year, then any history the full cite carries
4 dot leader
5 every page of this brief that cites the case
6 a range only where every page in it cites the case; never passim

Quoted as filed: the brief shortens the respondent to NRDC and joins its ranges with hyphens. In this book’s own forms the name follows Table D and a range takes an en dash. The Solicitor General filed the brief in Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce to defend Chevron. The Court decided that case with Loper Bright, under Loper Bright’s caption, and overruled Chevron. A brief filed today carries that history in the entry (9.2).