Supreme Court Approves Citation to Unpublished Federal Court Opinions

Citation to unpublished federal judicial opinions will likely soon be allowed in any of the U.S. Federal Courts of Appeal. A new Rule 32.1 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure [PDF text], approved by the Supreme Court under its authority to prescribe federal court rules of procedure, will go into effect on December 1, 2006 unless Congress takes action to countermand it.

For more on this story, see this report on the Supreme Court's approval of Rule 32.1 and Tony Mauro's article: "Supreme Court Votes to Allow Citation to Unpublished Opinions in Federal Courts" from law.com.

A summary of the federal courts' rulemaking procedures is available on the U.S. Courts - Federal Judiciary web site.

[Thanks to Timothy Stanley at Justia.com for the tip!]