Melanie Kalmanson is a commercial litigation attorney and former Florida Supreme Court law clerk. She is the author of the Bluebook Wednesday Tips Newsletter. Click here to subscribe to Melanie’s newsletter.
Bluebook Tip: Order of Authorities – Rule 1.4
This is sort of a trick… and I didn’t know it until I went to the Rule to start reading.
Who lives by these rules of thumb?
- Statutes before cases
- Newest to oldest of the same type of source
- Most authoritative to least authoritative within the same signal
- In Florida, that means the Supreme Court of Florida before the DCAs.
Me too. They’re instinct at this point. Make sure you’re sitting down.
Bluebook Alert
Those rules disappeared in the 21st Edition.
Rule 1.4 now states in full:
Authorities within each signal are separated by semicolons. Authorities should be ordered in a logical manner. If one authority or several authorities together are considerably more helpful or authoritative than the other authorities cited within a signal, they should precede the others. Authorities cited in short form are ordered as though cited in full.
I’m not sure my brain knows how to function with this much discretion.
So Many Questions
- Did you already know about this change?
- If so, are you still reverting to the 20th Edition rules?
- How do you feel about this change?
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