Changes to Supreme Court Rules 14, 15, 25, 29, 33 and 48 have been adopted on April 18, 2019 and are effective July 1, 2019. The order adopting the new rules can be found on the Supreme Court’s website.

The revisions to Rules 14.1(b) and 15.2 concern required disclosures. In addition to the list of parties and corporate disclosure statement previously required by Rule 14.1(b) for every petition for writ of certiorari, the Court now requires a list of all proceedings in state and federal trial and appellate courts directly related to the case at issue in the petition. Each case listed must include the name of the court, the docket number and case caption, and the date of entry of judgment. Rule 15.2 now requires every brief in opposition to a petition for writ of certiorari to list related cases that the petitioner failed to list.

The revision to Rule 25.3 now requires reply briefs filed in cases set for oral argument to arrive at the Court by 2 p.m. 10 days prior to oral argument, instead of the previous requirement of one week prior to oral argument. However, per revised Rule 48, the new deadline for reply briefs only applies to cases in which certiorari was granted or oral argument set after the effective date of July 1, 2019.

The revisions to Rule 29 make clear that despite mandatory electronic filing instituted by the Court in November 2017, all documents must be filed in paper form, and the paper filing is what satisfies all jurisdictional and other deadlines.

Finally, the revisions to Rule 33.1(g) lower the word limits for merits briefs to 13,000 words from 15,000 for petitioners/appellants and respondents/appellees. The word limit for reply briefs remains 6,000 words. In addition, revised Rule 33.1(g) lowers the word limit for non-governmental amicus briefs filed at the merits stage to 8,000 words, while retaining the old 9,000-word limit for amicus briefs filed at the merits stage by governmental entities under Rule 37.4. Per revised Rule 48, the new word limits only apply to cases in which certiorari was granted or oral argument set after the effective date of July 1, 2019.

The full amended rules can be found here.
A summary of the changes to the rules can be found here.

If you have questions about how these changes could impact your appeal before SCOTUS or any court, please contact staff counsel at Counsel Press.

Tagged: Supreme Court of the United States