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Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court cases/Resources/Article creation guide

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This is an article creation guide. You can start a new case article using the following process.

  1. Subst template Begin each page with the following template based on whether the case has a Volume and Page number in the Court Reporter:
    1. Older cases (this includes most cases): {{subst:SCOTUS-case|Litigants|USVol|USPage|DecideDate|DecideYear|Holding}}
      • Example: {{subst:SCOTUS-case|R. Runner v W.E. Coyote|1|1|November 30th|2024|that R. Runner's constitutional rights to not be chased around by a crazy coyote were infringed.}})
    2. Recently-decided cases (cases decided in approximately the last year): {{subst:SCOTUS-recentcase-outline-1|Name v. Name|##-####|year|holding}}
      • Example: {{subst:SCOTUS-recentcase-outline-1|John Doe v. Jane Doe|05-0534|2006|that John Doe's constitutional rights were...}}
    3. Then save the page. This will place the case in two relevant categories and produce this.
  2. Infobox Then add information to the Infobox which has been added to the article. See {{Infobox SCOTUS case}} and instructions there.
  3. Write the article! Keeping in mind the outline above, read the decision and whatever other information you can find and write the article itself.
  4. List and categorize it Add the new article to the appropriate list and categories for cases as explained above.
  5. Create redirects If a case name can be abbreviated in different ways, it is useful to redirect these variations to the main article to facilitate searches for the article and prevent accidental duplications. For example, National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation is redirected from:
    • National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel
    • National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Company
    • National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Co.
    • National Labor Relations Board v. Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp.
    • NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation
    • NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel
    • NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.
    • NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
    • The case is also redirected from two variations of its U.S. reports citation – "301 U.S. 1" and "301 US 1". This helps people familiar with legal citations look up cases the way they might on Lexis or Westlaw.
  6. Article Assessment On the article's discussion page, you can generally insert the following templates:
{{WikiProject United States|class=|importance=}}
{{WikiProject Law|class=|importance=}}
{{WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court cases|class=|importance=}}
You may review the article yourself or ask others here to review it for you. Perhaps add it to the to-do list. Metadatatest.js is a script that can assist you in assessing articles.

For examples of well-formatted articles, see the "Recognized content" section below.