When is the respondent’s Supreme Court merits brief due?

Establish the petitioner’s or appellant’s merits brief filing date from the Court record.

Do not replace that date with when your office received a paper copy or an automatic email notification.

Confirm your party follows the ordinary opposing-side schedule. Supporting respondents and designated consolidated-case filers may follow another actual schedule.

1. Use the established filing date of the petitioner’s merits brief, not its receipt or service date.
2. Exclude the established trigger day.
3. Count 30 calendar days.
4. Apply Rule 30.1 final-day adjustment.
5. Complete the required filing by that date.

Supreme Court Rule 30.1 excludes the trigger day and includes every intermediate calendar day. For periods shorter than seven days it excludes intermediate closed days. Each fixed period reviewed here is at least seven days.

The filing event starts this period. Neither paper transit nor the recipient’s service method supplies an automatic addition under Rule 25.2.

If the final day is Saturday, Sunday, a federal legal holiday listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103 or a Court-building closure ordered by the Court or Chief Justice, Rule 30.1 continues the period to the next day that is none of those. Check actual Court closure orders. The calculator does not infer additional closures.

Fictitious example

Fictitious petitioner’s merits brief filed on August 24, 2026. The opposing respondent uses the ordinary Rule 25.2 schedule without a changed order. Exclude the established trigger day, August 24, 2026. Counting 30 calendar days reaches September 23, 2026. The final day is an open weekday.

Fictitious facts and dates. No different schedule, additional Court closure or extension is assumed.

Supporting the petitioner

A respondent or appellee supporting petitioner or appellant meets that party’s schedule under Rule 25.1.

Consolidated designation

Rule 25.4 allows the Clerk to designate sides and establish times for consolidated cross-petitions or cross-appeals. Check the direction.

Actual extensions or abridgment

Rule 25.5 permits authorized changes under Rule 30 and an advanced-hearing order. Use the actual changed schedule.

Required service proof

Rule 25.8 directs the Clerk not to file a merits brief without Rule 29 proof of service.

• The calculator counts the encoded default period after an established trigger. It does not determine jurisdiction, party alignment or the effect of a particular order.
• Check the Court’s docket, actual directions and proof of the required act.

• Verify the petitioner’s merits brief filing date.
• Confirm your party’s position and consolidated-case designation.
• Read actual extensions and hearing-driven briefing orders.
• Prepare the merits brief with required format and copies.
• Include service proof and distinguish the later reply and any deferred appendix.
• Rule 29.2 distinguishes timely paper receipt, qualifying USPS postmark, commercial-carrier delivery and proper electronic submission. Under the March 2026 rule, electronic timeliness requires the paper copies to be delivered or mailed by a specified method within three days. Rule 29.7 and the current guidelines impose additional electronic-submission requirements for represented filers and identify exceptions. Filing with the Court does not itself transmit the document to other parties.
• Check represented-filer electronic requirements and paper-copy requirements. The March 2026 guidelines exempt specified sealed and privacy-sensitive filings from electronic submission.
• Preserve both filing and separate service evidence.