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Statements of Facts in Supreme Court Briefs

By Stuart Buck, Esq.

Two interesting but contradictory opinions about statements of facts. 1. When I took a Supreme Court litigation seminar with Charles Fried (who, of course, had been Solicitor General of the United States under Reagan), he was very emphatic in his belief that a brief's statement of facts section contributes "50 percent" to that brief's effectiveness. The statement of facts, in his view, was your chance to show the Court that you could describe the case in a neutral and balanced fashion, thus lending credibility to the rest of your arguments. 2. But in this video (about 3-4 minutes in), Justice Thomas tells Bryan Garner that he "never" reads the statement of facts section in a brief. He says that instead, he reads the appellate court's opinion, and he'll learn about the facts from there; this seemed to be because the appellate court isn't as likely to have had an agenda in describing the facts...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Buck Stops Here on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).