On Footnotes--More or Less (6/21/24)

In 2021, I blogged on the demise of Appendix C of my Federal Tax Crimes Book (Student and Practitioner Editions). See On Footnotes and the Demise of Appendix C from FTPB (7/28/21; 11/21/23), here. In noting (and somewhat lamenting) its demise, I incorporated the footnote as it then was written into the blog. I have subsequently updated the blog so that my ranting on footnotes is somewhat fresh.

I picked up the following article today: David Weisenfeld, Want to understand the logic behind a Supreme Court opinion? Focus on footnotes, says professor (ABA Journal 6/18/24), here. The article discusses some aspects of Professor Peter Charles Hoffer’s book, The Supreme Court Footnote: A Surprising History, Amazon here, indicating a publication date of June 18, 2024 (perhaps explaining the lack of customer reviews (as of viewing on 6/21/24 at 12:00pm).

Hoffer is a Professor of History at the University of Georgia (see bio here).

I don’t know whether Professor Hoffer includes my favorite Scalia quote on footnotes. I have continued including that quote in the body of the text since retiring Appendix C. That quote as I present it in the current working draft of the August 2024 editions is (footnotes omitted, of course):

          On the topic of footnotes, Justice Scalia stated his lack of appreciation for footnotes in the oral argument in a Supreme Court case when a lawyer referred to a footnote in a prior Supreme Court opinion, whereupon Justice Scalia responded: “I had not recollected that footnote. I will -- I will find it. I don't read footnotes, normally.” But, even as he claimed to not read footnotes normally, he did write them; it is hard to believe that any Supreme Court advocate in oral argument would have told Justice Scalia that he or she–the advocate–did not read footnotes anymore, particularly Justice Scalia’s footnotes. Regardless of whether Justice Scalia’s claimed reading practice is good or bad (actually I like to read and write footnotes), I have attempted to put in the text (rather than the footnotes) the material that I believe a student should know for a law school class in tax procedure. Accordingly, the Student Edition has no footnotes.

          In earlier versions of this text, I offered in an Appendix a long–too long–digression on footnotes. For the book versions starting in 2021, I have eliminated that Appendix. So that the content is not lost, however, I posted the contents of the eliminated Appendix C to my Federal Tax Procedure Blog and provide the link to that posting in, you guessed it, a footnote below. The blog entry is not required reading or even recommended reading. But you might find some humor there.