US Supreme Court takes new aim at unwritten rules

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its newest guidance in its ongoing effort to formalise previously unwritten rules for lawyers on its procedures.

The latest installment concerns scheduling at the justices’ private conferences and requests for Supreme Court review, known as petitions for certiorari or cert-stage petitions. In October, the justices formalized informal rules relating to amicus, or briefs from outside parties.

The new guidance “does not appear to change any existing practices,” said Supreme Court practitioner and McDermott Will & Emery partner Paul Hughes.

It looks like this guidance, like the amicus one, “is intended primarily to make known to all (and official) rules and practices that have been unwritten but well known to regular Supreme Court practitioners for a while,” said Supreme Court veteran Sarah Harrington of Goldstein and Russell.

“The Court may have chosen to provide written guidance on these commonly-recurring procedural issues so that counsel who do not regularly appear before the Court may have a more fulsome appreciation of standard practices,” Hughes said.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/supreme-court-takes-new-aim-at-unwritten-rules