What’s in a Name? Abbreviating Case Names

My first-year law students are beginning to learn about legal citation.  Today we discussed a question that sometimes causes confusion:  whether to abbreviate the first word of a case name.  The answer requires a student to synthesize a few rules from the Bluebook.

Bluebook Rule 10.2.2 states that all words listed in Table 6 (the table of abbreviations) must be abbreviated, even the first word in a party name.  Table 6 notes that a word of eight letters (or more) may be abbreviated at the author’s discretion if substantial space is saved.  Abbreviated words are punctuated by a period, unless the abbreviation is formed with an apostrophe (Corp., but Ass’n).

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Marcoux Offers Rapid Fire of Big Thoughts on Milwaukee’s Future

“If we’re a city on the move, we’ve got to think big.”

Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of the City of Milwaukee Department of City Development, said that — and did his best to demonstrate that – in an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Eckstein Hall on Tuesday. His excitement about big ideas for Milwaukee’s future was strong enough to get him literally getting out of his chair at one point and talking throughout the hour-long session with speed and enthusiasm.

What kind of big thoughts?

Perhaps the one that was freshest was his suggestion that construction of a new sports and entertainment complex should be tied to improving life along W. Wisconsin Ave. from the Milwaukee River west. Emphasizing that he was not speaking for Mayor Tom Barrett or the Common Council and not taking a formal position, Marcoux said Wisconsin Ave. is an important asset for the city that needs help, and the closer a new arena is to that area, the more likely it would be to trigger other good developments for downtown. This would suggest locating an arena south of the vacant Park East land north of Juneau Ave. that has been suggested by others. Marcoux said perhaps the site could be several blocks to the south, where the Milwaukee Arena and Milwaukee Theatre stand now, with some or all of the block occupied by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel included. That would be from N. Third to N. Sixth Streets and from Kilbourn Ave. to State St.

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The Controversial Optimism of Henry Tyson

Henry Tyson is as controversial as he is optimistic as he articulate as he is driven. All of those traits were on view when Tyson, the superintendent of Saint Marcus Lutheran School, 2215 N. Palmer St., Milwaukee, was the guest last week in an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at Marquette Law School.

Despite what Tyson called “crazy battles” among advocates for different schools and streams of schools, the most significant trait about Tyson may well be his optimism about Milwaukee education in general, including his confidence that student achievement levels can and will rise across the city.

Since Tyson arrived in Milwaukee a little over a decade ago, he has become a force on Milwaukee’s school scene, both as an advocate for the private school voucher program and as an advocate for high expectations and the approach to urban education sometimes given the label “no excuses.”

Tyson is currently at the center of a controversy in which Saint Marcus is seeking to buy the closed Malcolm X school building at 1st and Center Sts. owned by Milwaukee Public Schools. The Milwaukee School Board has been united in opposing that, although it appears willing to consider selling other school buildings to Saint Marcus.

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