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United States Supreme Court Rules
Rules of the Supreme Court: the current version effective October 1, 2007
Revisions to Rules: the most recent revisions effective October 1, 2007, marked to show changes from the previous version, with the Clerk’s comments on the revisions
Electronic Merits Briefs Submission Guidelines
Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (“FRAP”)
Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure: the current version effective December 1, 2008; official text maintained by the House Committee on the Judiciary, with bookmarked and hyperlinked table of contents, but without the Committee Notes; downloadable PDF.
Official Appellate Forms: the official forms; downloadable in WordPerfect and RTF formats
Steven Finell, Appellate Rules and Statutes Focus: Amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, App. Prac. J., Winter 2009, at 4: includes an overview and timetable of the federal rules amendment process
Luther T. Munford, Public Comment on the Work of Federal Rules Committees, Prac. Litigator, July 1998, at 15: a guide to submitting effective comments on federal rules amendments, as reproduced on the Federal Rulemaking web site
Advisory Committee on Rules of Appellate Procedure (“AP Committee”)
The AP Committee engages in a continuing process of improving the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. The following committee materials are useful in researching pending and past amendments:
Agenda Materials for Meetings: these are very large PDF files, but contain a wealth of information on pending and past amendments
Table of Agenda Items: the history and status of proposed amendments that the AP Committee is considering
Proposed Amendment (not yet published for comment)
In December 2008, the AP Committee recommended to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (the “Standing Committee”) amendment of Fed. R. App. P. 40(a)(1) to make clear that the extended 45-day period to petition for rehearing applies in cases to which a United States official is sued even if the official is sued in an individual capacity for performance of official duties. If approved by the Standing Committee, the proposed amendment will probably be published for comment in August 2009, with comments due in February 2010, and will become effective, with such modifications as may be made during rulemaking process, on December 1, 2011.
AP Committee Report (December 2008): the proposed amendment with commentary
Proposed Amendments (August 2008–December 2010)
Proposed amendments to Fed. R. App. P. 1 (definition of “State”), 29 (new disclosure requirements in amicus curiae briefs), and Form 4 (affidavit supporting in forma pauperis application revised to conform to Privacy Act requirements), were published for comment on August 8, 2008. The comment period ended February 17, 2009. The AP Committee meets on April 16–17, 2009; it will consider the comments and then make its final recommendations to the Standing Committee. The proposed amendments, with such modifications as may be made during rulemaking process, are scheduled to become effective on December 1, 2010.
AP Committee Report (May 2008): the proposed amendments with commentary
Proposed Amendments (August 2007–December 2009)
Proposed amendments to Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1) (treatment of federal officials sued individually), 4(a)(4) (clarification concerning amended notice of appeal), 12.1 (new rule on indicative rulings), 22 (proceedings under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2254 and 2255), and 26(c) (clarification of 3-day rule), and several additional amendments from Time-Computation Project, were published for comment on August 15, 2007. The Judicial Conference transmitted final version of the amendments to the Supreme Court in November 2008. In March 2009, the Supreme Court approved the proposed amendment without change and transmitted them to Congress. If Congress does not act to the contrary, the proposed amendments will take effect on December 1, 2009.
The Judicial Conference has also proposed legislation to lengthen those statutory time periods that the proposed method of time computation would shorten, to take effect simultaneously with the time-computation amendments to the rules. In March 2009, the Judicial Conference's proposals were introduced as the Statutory Time-Periods Technical Amendments Act of 2009, H.R. 1626, 111th Cong. (2009).
Time-Computation Subcommittee Report (June 2007): this proposal would change due dates throughout the various federal rules of procedure, including the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure
AP Committee Report - Time-Computation Amendments (May 2007): proposed amendments with commentary
AP Committee Report - Other Amendments (May 2007): proposed amendments with commentary
Comments Submitted: comments submitted to the Standing Committee on the proposed amendments
AP Committee Final Report (May 2008): after considering comments; approved by Standing Committee
Standing Committee Report (September 2008)
Supreme Court Transmittal to Congress (March 2009)
Rules of the Courts of Appeals
The following are links to pages for the rules and procedures of each United States Court of Appeals:
Court of Appeals (9th Cir.)
