Integrating Quotations in Legal Briefs
Aug 2 2012If a brief is essentially a string of block quotes, it lacks legal analysis of the facts and clarity of argument. And even if block quotes are used relatively sparingly, many readers simply skip over them in search of legal analysis. Indeed, the sentiments of many quotations are best expressed in a writer’s own words with reference to the particular facts and legal issue. Quoting authority should be reserved for particularly poignant, eloquent, or persuasive quotations, which are integrated seamlessly into the writer’s own material.
Generally, it is best to incorporate a quotation into a sentence of your own. The result should be a grammatically correct sentence that flows as though the quoted portion was not a quotation. For example,
In Hibbs, the right to be free from gender-based employment discrimination was violated by the States’ failure to provide leave to employees because such failure “exclude[s] far more women than men from the workplace” and “do[es] little to combat stereotypes about the roles of male and female employees.”
Notice that in this example brackets are used to make the sentence grammatically correct. Here, brackets indicate that part of the word in the quotation was changed. Brackets can also be used to insert a word into a quotation. Empty brackets–[ ]–are used to indicate a letter was omitted.
Ellipses are another tool to alter quotations. Ellipses indicate that words were omitted from the original quotation. They can help make a sentence grammatically correct and allow a writer to omit extraneous material. For example, in Hibbs, the Court quoted itself from a prior opinion:
“[I]t can hardly be doubted that . . . women still face pervasive, although at times more subtle, discrimination . . . in the job market.”
Of course, quotations should always be accompanied by citations to the source. And when altering quotations, the fundamental meaning of the quotation cannot be changed. To the extent that a quotation gleans meaning from its context, a writer should be careful use the quote so as not to misrepresent its meaning out of context.
Sometimes a quotation as a stand alone sentence (or sentences) is necessary and preferred. For example, when discussing the scope of Title VII’s prohibition on gender discrimination, Justice Ginsburg chose to use the following stand alone quotation from a 1969 circuit dissenting opinion:
“A mother is still a woman. And if she is denied work outright because she is a mother, it is because she is a woman. Congress said that could no longer be done.”
AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen, 556 U.S. 701 (2009). Incorporating this quotation into a sentence would have diminished its effectiveness in conveying the meaning. Further, it was novel for this sentiment to appear in a judicial opinion at the time it was written. Quoting it as a stand alone sentence in a dissenting opinion written almost forty years later underscores the notion that although the sentiment espoused by Justice Ginsburg in her opinion is not new, it continues to be rejected.
Finally, although block quotes should be used sparingly, they are required if the quoted material is longer than fifty words. A quotation longer than 50 words is most likely to be unavoidable when the relevant portion needs to be contextualized. I most frequently use block quotes to quote statutes when addressing issues of statutory construction. Although only one clause of the statute might apply to the particular case, the language of the entire section might be relevant in discerning its meaning. In that instance, I emphasize the relevant portions by using a bold typeface, but quote the entire statutory section. By emphasizing the most relevant portions, I hope to dissuade a reader who might be tempted to skip the entire block quote from doing so. It also allows the reader to easily revisit the relevant portion of the quote, if necessary. Using this sort of visual cue in a block quote encourages a reader to read at least the most relevant portion of the quote, ensuring that its meaning is conveyed.