By Margie Alsbrook.
The American legal system is facing a credibility crisis that threatens the stability of democracy itself. While much of the scholarly attention on this crisis has focused on political causes, this Article takes a procedural and practical approach by examining how the erosion of reliable legal citations undermines the integrity of judicial opinions and legal briefs. Citations—those tiny but mighty pathways to precedent—should be treated as foundational to legal reasoning; when they are not, public trust in the courts continues to erode. This Article argues that restoring citation reliability is essential not only to stabilizing precedent but also to rebuilding faith in the rule of law. Full Article.