WHY AN EDITOR IS YOUR FIEND . . . WE MEAN, FRIEND

Wendy Jackson, Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau

Christopher Johnson, Texas Legislative Council

Melanie Westerberg, Texas Legislative Council

Sydney Winder, Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau

September 18, 2019

Santa Fe, New Mexico

DOCUMENTS THAT REQUIRE CITATION STYLE

LEGAL MEMOS

• Authored by an attorney.

• Present a legal response to a legal

question.

• Bluebook style generally applies.

Types of citations in legal memos:

• Constitutions, federal and state:U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 2

Wis. Const. art. V, § 10 (November 1930)

• Statutes, federal and state; local ordinances:15 U.S.C. § 18 (1982)

Wis. Stat. § 29.011 (2017)

Madison, Wis., Code § 6.01 (July 2019)

• Cases, federal and state:Raymond v. United States, 355 F.3d 107 (2d Cir. 2004)

Wisconsin Telephone Co. v. Henry, 218 Wis. 302, 260 N.W. 486 (1935)

Types of citations in legal memos (continued):

• Legislative materials:H.R. 422, 106th Cong. (1999)

S. B. 217, 2019 Leg. (Wis. 2019)

S.J. Res. 1, 2019 Leg. (Wis. 2019)

Wis. Assemb. Journal (1963) 14–16

Assemb. Rule 93/S. Rule 93/ Jt. Rule 79

• Administrative Code:Wis. Admin. Code NR § § 10.12 (3) and 10.13 (2) (1970)

• Opinions of the Attorney General:7 Wis. Op. Att’y Gen. 49, 49–50 (1918), https://www.doj.state.wi.us/. . .

RESEARCH MEMOS

• Authored by an analyst or

researcher.

• Respond to a request for

information on a policy issue.

• Often evolve into research

publications.

• Bluebook and CMOS styles generally

apply.

Types of citations in research memos:

• Items you will find in legal memos, but usually not case law.

• 50-state survey items.

• Other state statutes and administrative code provisions.

• Almost anything in chapter 14, Chicago Manual of Style.*

*If published online, can require hyperlinking to URLs and DOIs.

Chapter 14, CMOS:

• Books, including electronic books.

• Periodicals, including journals, magazines, and newspapers.

• Websites, blogs, and other social media references.

• Interviews or oral histories.

• Papers and reports.

• Other special types of references.

• Legal and public documents.

Chapter 14, CMOS:

• Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto (New York: Henry

Holt and Company, 2009), 79–80.

• Ryan LeCloux, “Regulating Wisconsin’s Hemp Industry,”

Wisconsin Policy Project (Madison, WI: Legislative Reference

Bureau, 2019).

• “Wikipedia: Manual of Style,” Wikimedia Foundation, last

modified April 7, 2016, 23:58,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style.

• Rep. Edward Brooks, interview by Jillian Slaight, Wisconsin

Oral History Project, LRB, April 2019.

• Executive Partial Veto of Assembly Bill 56 (Madison, WI:

Legislative Reference Bureau, 2019).

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

• Authored by an analyst or

researcher or attorney; frequently

co-authored.

• Present civics education and policy

information.

• Contain the full range of items that

can be cited.

• Bluebook and CMOS styles generally

apply.

Types of citations in research publications:

• Anything that can be cited in a legal memo.

• Anything that can be cited in a research memo.

• Anything in chapter 14, CMOS.*

*If published online, can involve excessive hyperlinking to URLs

and DOIs.

STYLE GUIDES AND CONSISTENCY

RANKING STYLE GUIDES

Bluebook Navigation Tips

First Steps

• Current (20th) edition

• Read the introduction. Three main parts:• Bluepages

• Whitepages

• Tables T1-T16

• The Bluepages parallel the Whitepages.

• Index (also searchable online at

legalbluebook.com)

"The central function of a legal citation is to allow the reader to efficiently locate the cited source." The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation 1 (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds., 20th ed. 2015).

Bluepages

• BBFF (Best Bluebook Friend Forever)

• Condensed version of Whitepages, parallel

• B2 explains typeface differences

• Supplement with the Whitepages if:• Bluepages silent on a rule

• You need more detailed information

Work with The Bluebook from the outside in.

Use the perimeter as a guide to the center by following cross-references.

Q: What am I editing?

A: Legal memo

Back cover quick reference

Index (sometimes

TMI)

Bluepages B10

B10.1.1(iv)-(vi)

T6: abbrev. case names in citations

T10: abbrev. geographical

terms

WhitepagesR10.2.1, R10.2.2

Tips for Increasing Bluebook Fluency

• Flag the sections you use the most.

• Know which guidelines are superseded by in-house or other style.

• Think of the Bluepages as a condensed version of the Whitepages.

• Learn shortcuts:• Quick reference guides

• Know thy tables

• Follow cross-references

Recommended Articles

Richard A. Posner, The Bluebook Blues, 120 Yale L.J. 850 (2011).

Susie Salmon, Shedding the Uniform: Beyond a “Uniform System Of Citation” to a More Efficient Fit, 99 Marq. L. Rev. 763 (2016).

Fred R. Shapiro & Julie Graves Krishnaswami, The Secret History of

the Bluebook, 100 Minn. L. Rev. 1563 (2016).

David J.S. Ziff, The Worst System of Citation Except for All the Others,

66 J. Legal Educ. 668 (2017).

Footnotes or Endnotes?

“Well… how did I get here?”

Style Guides

•Chicago Manual of Style

•The Bluebook

•House Style?

Main Factors That Determine the Use of Footnotes, Endnotes, or Both

•Type of document

•Reader/audience

•Kind of material in each note

•Amount of material in each note

Type of Document

•legal memo

•research document

•research publication

What’s in the Notes

•case citation

•source citation

•explanatory or supplemental information

•how extensive is the information in the notes?

Pros and Cons: Footnotes

• standard in legal memos, legal research documents, and scholarly research articles

• same-page ease of reference

• info in text need not be repeated in note

•CON: may result in pages that appear

daunting and cluttered

•CON: less oriented toward a general

audience

Pros and Cons: Endnotes

• common in research documents, publications, and books

• avoids clutter

• better for general readers

•CON: requires going back and forth from

text to back of article, chapter, or book

•CON: not as helpful when there are many

pages of endnotes and ibid. is heavily used

Both Footnotes and Endnotes

•May be a good choice for a heavily documented work

•Citation notes appear as endnotes, indicated by numbers

•Substantive notes appear as footnotes and are indicated by the use of asterisks, daggers, and other symbols

Using id., ibid., or shortened citations

“How do I work this?”

ibid. (from Latin ibidem, “in the same place”)

id. (from Latin idem, “the same” )

The Bluebook: use id. to refer to the immediately preceding authority, which can be all types, not only cases. (Ibid. is usually used for the same purpose in other documents, as described by CMOS.)

CMOS (17th Ed.): discourages the use of ibid. Use shortened cites instead, except for legal references, where id. is used.

Bluebook Guidance on the Use of Id.

• underlining (or italicizing) of id. includes the period; only capitalized when at the beginning of a sentence

• used when immediately preceding citation cites to only one authority

• when used alone, refers to the same pincite found in the immediately preceding citation

• Add “at” to refer to a different page in the immediately preceding authority. Id. at 6.

• Id. is not used for internal cross-references.

CMOS on Shortened Citations in Works With a Bibliography

When to Use Supra Instead of Id.• To refer an authority previously cited in full, but appropriate for other kinds of sources.

• Supra is not used when referring to cases, statutes, constitutions, legislative materials, or regulations. Appropriate for legislative hearings.

• Supra appears after a comma and last name of the author (or else institution or title of work), with any difference from previous cite noted:

19 Johnson, supra note 11, at 5.

• If first citation is to a shorter work within an authority, use supra instead of id. if subsequently citing the entire authority.

EDITING HYPERLINKS: THREE GOALS

1. The hyperlink works.

2. The citation is accessible to the reader.

3. The citation looks clean.

1. THE HYPERLINK WORKS

2. THE CITATION IS ACCESSIBLE TO THE READER

Online publication

Paper publication

3. THE CITATION LOOKS CLEAN

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1000/182Prefix Suffix

Style Guides for Avoiding CitationDilemmas (in Texas, anyway)

Citing Statutes of Other States

Middle column: example of how state organizes its statutes Right column: how to cite the example using TLC style

Citing Statutes of Other States

Hybrid style combining Bluebook recommendations, how each state cites its own statutes, and TLC style

Conforms to one of three models

Mostly used by research division policy drafters

Not representative of how any state actually cites its own statutes!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

State Agency List

Updated biennially

State agency names as they were enacted legislatively

Notes recent abolishment, transfer of functions, and name changes

Case Citation Style Guides

Case Citation Style Guides

• TLC Drafting Manual• Texas courts, federal courts• Legal memos, research memos and publications

• The Greenbook: Texas Rules of Form• Supplements The Bluebook to address citation problems unique to Texas• Preempted by TLC Drafting Manual for style issues; preempts The Bluebook when

citing Texas authorities• Legal memos

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation• Definitive style guide for citing U.S. cases• Legal memos

• Lexis Advance• Used to check accuracy of citations and history, but not for form

Case Citation Style Training

• Held in even-numbered years for new legal editors and editors who would like a refresher

• Fast Guide to Case and Federal Citation (TLC Drafting Manual guidance annotated to show where TLC style differs from Greenbook(case cites) and Bluebook (federal cites) style

• Exerciseso List of case citations

o Legal memo

oAttorney general opinion

BE A CITATION FIEND.BE A CRITICAL FRIEND.