Lessons in writing from Judge Steven Merryday

On Sept. 15, 2025, Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times and other parties. The pleading runs 84 pages.

On Sept. 19, 2025, Judge Steven D. Merryday, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, issued a four-page ruling ripping Trump's pleading to shreds. (It's short, to the point, and definitely worth the read.) The ruling allows Trump's team to refile within 28 days and requires that the new pleading cannot exceed 40 pages. In his spare, four-page ruling, Judge Merryday provides multiple lessons in writing that all of us could benefit from following, lessons that I would like to share here:

Lesson 1) Cogently present the issue:

"In this action, a prominent American citizen (perhaps the most prominent American citizen) alleges defamation by a prominent American newspaper publisher American newspaper publisher

(perhaps the most prominent American newspaper publisher) and by several other corporate and natural persons. ..."

Lesson 2) Avoid making the reader "labor" through your words:

"The reader of the complaint must labor through allegations, such as “...a new journalistic low for the hopelessly compromised and tarnished ‘Gray Lady'” The reader must endure an allegation of “the desperate need to defame with a partisan spear rather than report with an authentic looking glass” and an allegation that “the false narrative about ‘The Apprentice’ was just the tip of Defendants’ melt ing iceberg of falsehoods.”

Lesson 3) Don't make the reader fix your typos! It's Zeitgeist, not zeitgeist:

"Similarly, in one of many, often repetitive, and laudatory (toward President Trump) but superfluous allegations, the pleader states, 'The Apprentice’ represented the cultural magnitude of President Trump’s singular brilliance, which captured the [Z]eitgeist of our time.'

 

Lesson 3) Don't take 80 pages to get to the point:

"Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes eighty-five pages. Count I appears on page eighty, and Count II appears on page eighty-three. Pages one through seventy-nine, plus part of page eighty, present allegations common to both counts and to all defendants. Each count alleges a claim against each defendant and, apparently, each claim seeks the same remedy against each defendant. Even under the most generous and lenient application of Rule 8, the complaint is decidedly improper and impermissible." 

Lesson 4) (and note to self): 

Avoid the use of "abundant, florid, and enervating detail" in all writing.

Lesson 5) Never forget the assignment specs (here, what a pleading is supposed to communicate):

"...A complaint remains an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence...

Lesson 6) If specs are not followed, provide a reminder of the rules/specs.

"As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary."

Lesson 7) If revisions are allowed, provide easily comprehensible guidelines:

"The amended complaint must not exceed 40 pages..."

The president's lawyers (unclear from news reports if taxpayers or Trump are paying for this) have promised to refile. It will be curious to see if/how they follow Judge Merryday's directions. Unfortunately, Trump is doing what he has long done, using the courts to harass opponents, forcing them to pay for expensive legal representation to argue against his invective and politically motivated witch-hunts. In the pleading submitted by Trump's lawyers, they wanted to use the document as a tool for "vituperation and invective" against the perceived enemies of Trump. Judge Merryday quickly shut that down. 

Thankfully for now, there are at least a few judges in the lower courts who are not going to allow him to get away with trashing the integrity of the courts. For six justices on SCOTUS, however,  it is a different story for another time.