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Anything inside them was changed by the person quoting.
Also known as: Brackets in a quote, Altered text marker, [sic] and other bracketed changes
In a quoted passage, square brackets mark every word the quoter altered — a changed capital, a substituted pronoun, an inserted explanation. It is the same discipline as an epigraphic bracket and it exists for the same reason: to keep the source's words separable from the quoter's.
Square brackets within a quotation enclose material altered or supplied by the person quoting: a changed letter case, a substituted word, an inserted clarification, or an ellipsis marking an omission.
A record about how a reference is written, not about what the law says. Nothing here is legal advice.
The obligation is strict in legal writing, where a misquoted authority can be a professional failing rather than a slip. Every departure from the source is bracketed, including a capital changed to fit a sentence.
The same principle as the epigraphic square bracket: keep what the source said separable from what the editor supplied. Two disciplines arrived at the same character for the same reason.
Two upright square brackets, each a vertical line with short arms turned inward, enclosing one or more words inside a quotation.
Both mark text supplied by someone other than the original writer.