Template:SCOTUS-case

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Use

This template is for starting new articles on United States Supreme Court cases that have been decided by the Court.

• Syntax: {{subst:SCOTUS-case|Litigants|USVol|USPage|DecideDate|DecideYear|Holding}}
• Alternate Syntax: {{subst:SCOTUS-case/alt|CASENAME|VOLusPAG|MonthDayYear|HOLDING}}
  • Example: {{subst:SCOTUS-case/alt|Pell v. Procunier|417 U.S. 817|June 24, 1974|When other channels for communication exist, restricting physical access of the media to incarcerated people is not unconstitutional.}}

This template uses but does not populate the most common fields of {{Infobox SCOTUS case}}.

New cases that are docket-only

Cases that have been decided by the Court but have not been printed in the US Reporter only have docket numbers. The optional Docket option implements that possibility. Using the docket option will clobber the USPage number with "___", so it is not a shortcut for adding the docket number and the page number. The way other templates handle docket numbers and page numbers is not regular enough to handle both at the same time.

• Syntax: {{subst:SCOTUS-case|Litigants|USVol|___|DecideDate|DecideYear|Holding|Docket=}}

Argument and decision dates

• The earlier cases do not include the argument and decision dates in the opinion. The canonical list through Volume 107 (1883) is available from the Supreme Court's website.
  • Sample citation:

Common manual fixes

• It's good practice to add categories for the specific kinds of case law the case represents. The categorization structure is a mess, but Category:United States federal case law is pretty much top-level.
• The template automatically adds the appropriate Chief Justice category, but remember that not all of their tenures were contiguous. Sometimes, the Chief Justice seat has been vacant. Use your judgement for what to do in those cases.
• Use {{SCOTUS-case-talk}} to populate the talk page.
• If the year category does not exist, it should be created. Populate it with {{United States Supreme Court cases in}}.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:SCOTUS-case/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.