Marginal Notes
A note in the margin—where does it go in the flow?
✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §6.4 in the RFC ↗
Each printed marginal note MUST be rendered as a separate block placed immediately after the element it annotates. Where the element it belongs to cannot be established, the note MUST still be kept as a separate block and MUST NOT be merged into body text.
When it applies
Statutes and some textbooks print short notes in the outer margin — a citation, a one-word gloss — aligned with the line they annotate. They are printed text, not handwriting, and they belong to a particular line.
SEC. 105. INVESTIGATIONS AND DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS. 15 USC 7215.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Board shall establish, by rule, … Establishment.
Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.
Requirements
- A marginal note MUST be its own element, never part of the heading or paragraph it sits beside.
- It MUST follow the element it annotates — the heading or paragraph level with it — in reading order, before the next element of the body.
- A geometric reading that inserts
15 USC 7215.into the middle of the section heading, or splices a gloss into a line of the paragraph, does not conform.
a public law with sidenotes
15 USC 7215. and Establishment. in the right margin, level with SEC. 105. and (a) IN GENERAL.; the body is set in one narrower column. The small capitals of IN GENERAL are
transcribed as capitals. The heading depth is relative: the page does not show the outline above
the section.
Source page
Source: Public Law 107-204 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), 116 Stat. 759, §105 marginal notes (public domain)
Expected output · excerpt from SEC. 105
SEC. 105. INVESTIGATIONS AND DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS.
15 USC 7215.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Board shall establish, by rule, subject to the requirements of this section, fair procedures for the investigation and disciplining of registered public accounting firms and associated persons of such firms.
Establishment.
…
## SEC. 105. INVESTIGATIONS AND DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS.
15 USC 7215.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Board shall establish, by rule, subject to the requirements of this section, fair procedures for the investigation and disciplining of registered public accounting firms and associated persons of such firms.
Establishment.
<!-- … -->Neighbouring rules, and how they differ
More
Sample sources1 +
Public-domain U.S. federal government source material.
- Public Law 107-204 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), 116 Stat. 759, §105 marginal notes
Rule id layout-marginal-notes · layout rule structure legal