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freelawproject
Let users set citation type preferences
Many opinions are cited in multiple reporters. For example,
Arizona v. Gant, 129 S. Ct. 1710 (2009). Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009).
These are both correct. Whichever citation we happen to have in the first citation field is currently given preferential treatment and listed in the header/title of the case.
Enhancement A We could, instead, recognize all these instances where reporters overlap and give users a preference option for whichever citation format they'd prefer to see in the header/title. (Some might also prefer a combined format listing both and some state court rules may even require this.)
Enhancement B Tackling this on our header/title is one thing. It'd be another huge enhancement if every instance of that citation, even in the opinion text, were modified based on this user-expressed preference. So, if you only want to see U.S. cites or S. Ct. cites, you could say so and then we'd display all opinions with only such cites. The challenge will be translating page numbers/pin cites. If a case cites to 556 U.S. at 334, then the part cited may or may not appear on 129 S. Ct. at 1712. One cannot assume page-to-page correspondence across reporters. This part is hard. Good luck.
Brian, @flooie, @johnhawkinson, do any of you know how this preference-setting works in other systems? Do you say, "I work in state courts," and that sets your citation preferences, or do you say, "I prefer U.S. cites over S.Ct. cites"? How could this work? Seems difficult to make simple enough for folks.
I'm not aware of a citation preference setting, although Lexis does indeed let you indicate a preference for state courts, that I think mostly manifests in the quick searches available in a nevigation bar. Oh, and also that both Westlaw and Lexis have various billing plans might include federal courts but not state courts, such that you don't have access to state courts at all.
As a practical matter, I think there's a clear hierarchy of what kinds of citations are preferred nowadays. Maybe it's just my practice, but I think everybody prefers U.S. citations except for "newer" cases that don't exist there, in which case generally people use S. Ct. (perhaps there are people who still love the Lawyer's Edition L. Ed. 2d?).
Similarly, I think the regional reporters (Atlantic, North Eastern, etc.) don't get much love these days.
But for the Supreme Court, at least, I think we can enforce a preference of preferring U.S. where it exists and otherwise S. Ct.. I defer to others tho!
I didn't know of this particular issue, but this what I'm attempting to solve. Which is why I had the more complex code to begin with. My idea was that a user could pick from a list of predefined citation formats in their profile or build a custom one.
