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Team Two Spaces

Eugene Volokh | 4.13.2026 12:17 PM

From the Standing Order in civil cases issued by Judge Ana Reyes (D.D.C.)

The Court is mindful of the raging debate spaces between sentences engenders. See James Hamblin, The Scientific Case for Two Spaces After a Period, The Atlantic (May 11, 2018). Team Two Spaces champions improved readability and processing speed. See Rebecca L. Johnson, et al., Are two spaces better than one? The effect of spacing following periods and commas during reading, 80:6 Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 1504–11 (2018). Team One Space questions the science and notes that two space use is the monospaced font relic of a bygone era. See Angela Chen, Please don't use this study to justify your horrible habit of using two spaces after periods, The Verge (Apr. 28, 2018). Personally finding that one space use makes documents impenetrable, the Court sides squarely with Team Two Spaces.

Moderate that I am, I tend to go with two spaces in e-mails but one space on the blog and in articles and briefs. But I'm not positive that this is right; and in any event, if I file anything before Judge Reyes, I will of course be using two spaces.

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Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution. He is also the co-host of the Free Speech Unmuted podcast.

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