Free practice aid · From the forthcoming book

The Six Moves

A screen for deciding which errors are worth briefing in federal court. Answer all six and you have written the argument section.

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Use it as a desk-side aid.

The point is not to find every error. It is to decide which candidate errors can become arguments worth filing. Run each candidate through all six moves, in order — the first three are the cheapest to answer and eliminate weak candidates before substantial briefing time is spent.

An argument that answers all six has already produced what the argument section needs. Requirement and Failure open it, Proof becomes the citations under it, Foreclosure meets the Commissioner before he files, Harm is the paragraph the court will restate, and Remedy is the ask.

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The Six Moves one-page practice aid

Scope: ordinary merits defects in the decision and administrative record. Constitutional, jurisdictional, timeliness, sentence-six, and reopening claims sit outside it. The method is national, but the answers require governing law, including circuit law.