Reading Ramos, I am struck by the citation style: It's the first Supreme Court majority opinion I recall in which all citations are in footnotes. I find that style annoying, I confess. If citations are important enough to include, put them in the text. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-5924_n6io.pdf

This is an old debate, of course, but I'm strongly on the "in the text" side. Thread here from last year, when Gorsuch had moved citations to footnotes in dissents. https://twitter.com/OrinKerr/status/1141831708196691968

Of course, it's true that citations in law review articles are in footnotes. But I think that makes sense because no one reads the citations in law reviews. (Sorry, editors.) They're commentary, not law, so they don't matter much. Different with actual law, I think.

And I think there's a substantive aspect here, too. I think it's easier for judges to engage in judicial shenanigans if citations are in footnotes. Putting citations in footnotes makes it less likely that readers will see what a judge is relying on to back up the judge's claims.

In contrast, I suspect that putting FNs in the text has at least some disciplining effect. It tends to invite scrutiny of the sources and whether they back up the judge's claims. Depending on your view of a judge's role, that can be important.

One interesting aspect of this w/r/t Ramos is that its author, Justice Gorsuch, has used the fn approach in some dissents but not in his majority ops, as fas as I can tell. Here he is in the Comcast case last month -- note the regular citations. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1171_4425.pdf

I wonder if Gorsuch is making a case-by-case determination of which of his opinions will use "in the text" citations and which ones will be "footnote" citations. Maybe particularly academic or historical opinions like Ramos use the latter, while others use the former?

If so, that's an interesting resolution to the "in the text" versus "footnote" debate: Maybe Gorsuch's view is just that it depends on the case and what he cites. (Note that in Ramos there are lots of long string cites; maybe NMG thought it was too unwieldy in the text.)

Anyway, something for Court-watchers to look out for, at least when they run out of Netflix shows to watch. /end