must produce evidence in support of each and every essential element of the claim or defense (as it would have to do at trial). To be successful, this type of summary-judgment motion must be drafted as a written preview of a party's entire case-in-chief (that it would put before the finder of fact at trial) because all parts of an entire claim or defense are at issue. Second, a different and very common tactic is where a defendant seeks summary judgment on a plaintiff's cause of action. The key difference is that in this latter situation, the defendant need only attack one essential element of the plaintiff's claim. A finding that the plaintiff cannot prove one essential element of its claim necessarily renders all other elements immaterial and results in summary judgment for the defendant. So these motions tend to be precisely targeted to the weakest points of the plaintiff's case. It is also possible for a plaintiff to seek summary judgment on a defendant's affirmative defense, but those types of motions are very rare. Regardless of the type of summary judgment motion, there is a standardized rule(-like) framework for evaluating the first clause of Rule 56(a) ("no disputed genuine issue of material fact"), formulated as the following six core summary judgment tenets of review (SJTOR) (where the emphasized must indicate the lack of judicial discretion permitted): All issues/facts: All ("each/every", not just "some") factual issues must be considered/discussed—especially, all disputed/contested genuine issues of material facts. Whole record: The entire record ("whole set/totality of circumstances", not just a "subset"), must be considered, regarding each/every issue. In context: All issues must be considered in holistic relationship with one another, within the whole-record environment (not context-free line-by-line isolation); patterns may emerge. Nonmovant trumps movant: Tenets 1–3 must be interpreted/construed in the light most favorable/advantageous to nonmovant (never to movant), and belief/credit awarded thereto (as to whether a dispute exists, not as to who wins the dispute, though either interpretation unambiguously satisfies the only question at summary judgment, which is whether or not a dispute exists). All inferences: All reasonable/justifiable logical/legal inferences/implications from tenets 1–3 must also be interpreted favorably to nonmovant, and credit awarded thereto. Light burden: For tenets 4–5, nonmovant bears the undemanding requirement of production only of favorable facts (and law)—i.e., de minimis proof/persuasion (that a rational/reasonable jury could find for nonmovant). All fact/credibility-finding must be reserved for the jury