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U.S. Supreme Court,
Judges and Judiciary,
Appellate Practice

Dec. 12, 2017

How do you spell ‘G-U-I-D-A-N-C-E’?

Although the courts' hesitancy to give guidance for future cases seems maddening at first blush, there is some method to that madness.

When I was in elementary school and did not know how to spell a word, my parents would tell me to look it up in the dictionary. This always perplexed me: How can I look up a word if I don't know how to spell it? It took a bit of trial and error, but I usually figured it out.

Appellate courts often engage in a practice that, at first glance, seems equally perplexing. The California Supreme Court's recent decision in $95

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