Start with {{SCOTUS-termlist-start}}, filling in the names of the justices in order of seniority (Chief Justice first, then the associate justices from earliest appointment to most recent).
Then use the below template for each separate case. Place {{SCOTUS-termlist-end}} after the last entry, entering the justices in the same way as with the start template.
Parameters
The following parameters must be used as a minimum:
<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">
[[]], U.S. ___
</syntaxhighlight>
The template allows for up to five actions to be listed for each justice, including filing and joining opinions. Additional opinions follow this pattern:
# = The order of the opinions during the term. This column is sortable and will correspond to the citation order.
case = The short form case name, when it is the same as the opinion's Wikipedia article. The short form is abbreviated from the full name of the parties (e.g., John Wayne Smith v. United States of America resolves to Smith v. United States). Use the name that appears in the list on the SCOTUS website.
case1 = Use when the case name should not be wikilinked, as in opinions dismissing certiorari as improvidently granted, where the case will probably not merit an article.
case-article and case-display = Use to pipe a different display name for a case other than the article title, such as for cases that have disambiguated article titles (e.g., James v. United States (2007)) or to fit a long case name within the table. Use case-article for the article title, and case-display for how the case name should be displayed in the article (e.g., |case-article=James v. United States (2007) |case-display=James v. United States will render James v. United States).
volume and page = The elements of the case citation in the United States Reports. For as yet unpublished opinions only available as slip opinions, the volume number will be available, but not the page; leave the page blank and the template will automatically insert this: ___ (three underscore marks), as per SCOTUS citation custom.
argue-date = The date the Court heard oral argument. Use the format MONTH DAY, YEAR (e.g., January 1, 2010); the date will display as it is entered, but the template will ensure this sorts properly. For cases in which argument was not held (as in most cases decided by per curiam opinions), leave this parameter blank. For cases that were reargued, use only the last argument date.
decision-date = The date the Court handed down the decision. Format as above.
note = Adds a footnote right after the case name. Used to explain when an opinion does not merit an article, as with one-line dismissals of certiorari. The template will not add ref tags, so <ref>...</ref> must be manually inserted.
justice[1-9]-opinion[1-5] = Designates each action the justice took in the case: which opinion they filed or joined. The main options are: majority, plurality, concurrence, concurrencedissent, dissent, dissentwithoutopinion, joinmajority, joinplurality, joinconcurrence, joinconcurrencedissent, joindissent, and didnotparticipate. This alone determines what color and what number (or other mark) displays in the table for the justice's action. Add "part" before the joining vote description to indicate that they joined the opinion only in part (partjoinmajority, partjoinconcurrence). Add a number after the description to distinguish between filing or joining different opinions of the same type in the same case, such as when more than one justice files a dissent (dissent1, joinconcurrence3). The template can support up to five different opinions of the same kind (such as five separate concurrences); number according to the order of seniority of which justice filed the opinion.
sortcode = Used only to ensure that like opinions get sorted together in the justice columns; this will not display in the table itself. Opinions filed are sorted first by type (majority through dissent), followed by joining votes and didnotparticipate at the end. Enter as follows: sortcode = 1 for a majority opinion, 1X for a plurality, 2 for a concurrence, 3 for a concurrencedissent, 4 for a dissent. For joining votes, follow the same numbers: joining the majority, J1, joining a concurrence, J2, etc. For joining in part, add X, such as J1X, to ensure these sort after the full joining votes. For multiple actions, lead with the opinion filed, and then follow with joining votes. A justice who joined the majority in part, joined a concurrence, and filed a concurrence, would get sortcode = 2J1XJ2. For didnotparticipate, use X by itself.
^In Fake v. Faker, 540 U.S. 1 (1995), the Court dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted.
The third case, McConnell, is a real case rendered according to how the justices actually voted in it; it represents an extreme of the complicated actions this template can accommodate.
Note the comment tags added to the end of each justice's line, such as: <!--breyer--> These are not necessary for the template's functioning, but help keep straight which line of template code refers to which justice within the article's code.
