[4] Selective publication is the legal process by which a judge or justices of a court decide whether or not a decision is to be published in a reporter.
[7][8] In 1964, the Judicial Conference of the United States recommended that federal appellate courts publish only those decisions "which are of general precedential value.
[11] In Anastasoff v. United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit struck down non-publication, but the decision was later declared moot.
Judge Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. (since appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States) was then the chair of this committee.
[18] It has been argued that the "hidden" conflict between published and unpublished decisions is hard to square with fundamental principles of equal justice.
[22] And Michael Hannon noted the frequency in which unpublished opinions include a dissent or concurrence, another sign that the case did not involve settled law.