The proposed Supreme Court rules changes announced on Nov. 1 came as an unpleasant shock to many court advocates.

The biggest changes were significant cuts in the word limits on merits briefs—from 15,000 to 13,000 words—as well as reply briefs and amicus briefs. And the most unpopular of these seems to be trimming reply briefs from 6,000 words to 4,500.

Shrinking the word counts should not have been much of a surprise. Federal appeals courts made similar trims not long ago, and at the Supreme Court level, they've probably been in the works for a long time. It is easily traceable to Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., who beefs about overly long briefs whenever he can.