766
Opinion of the Court
the appeal is taken.3 Notably, a signature requirement is not among Rule 3(c)(1)'s specifications, for Civil Rule 11(a) alone calls for and controls that requirement and renders it nonjurisdictional.
Amicus ultimately urges that even if there is no jurisdictional notice of appeal signature requirement for parties represented by attorneys, pro se parties, like Becker, must sign within Rule 4's time line to avoid automatic dismissal. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 34-36. Appellate Rule 3(c)(2) is the foundation for this argument. That provision reads: "A pro se notice of appeal is considered filed on behalf of the signer and the signer's spouse and minor children (if they are parties), unless the notice clearly indicates otherwise."
We do not agree that Rule 3(c)(2)'s prescription, added in 1993 to a then unsubdivided Rule 3(c), see Advisory Commit-tee's Notes on Fed. Rule App. Proc. 3, 28 U. S. C. App., p. 590, places pro se litigants in a singularly exacting time bind. The provision, as we read it, does not dislodge the signature requirement from its Civil Rule 11(a) moorings and make of it an Appellate Rule 3 jurisdictional specification. The current Rule 3(c)(2), like other changes made in 1993, the Advisory Committee Notes explain, was designed "to prevent the loss of a right to appeal through inadvertent omission of a party's name" when "it is objectively clear that [the] party intended to appeal." Advisory Committee's Notes on Fed. Rule App. Proc. 3, 28 U. S. C. App., p. 590. Seen in this light, the Rule is entirely ameliorative; it assumes and assures that the pro se litigant's spouse and minor children,
3 Appellate Rule 3(c)(1), as currently framed, provides in full: "(1) The notice of appeal must: "(A) specify the party or parties taking the appeal by naming each one in the caption or body of the notice, but an attorney representing more than one party may describe those parties with such terms as 'all plaintiffs,' 'the defendants,' 'the plaintiffs A, B, et al.,' or 'all defendants except X';
"(B) designate the judgment, order, or part thereof being appealed; and "(C) name the court to which the appeal is taken."
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