To cite a court case in text, italicize the case name and follow it with the volume number, reporter abbreviation, first page of the opinion, and a parenthetical containing the court (when not obvious from the reporter) and the year. That skeleton stays the same across styles; what changes is how you italicize, where you place the year, and whether the citation lives in the sentence, a parenthetical, a footnote, or a reference list. Bluebook governs legal writing, APA and MLA govern most academic writing, and Chicago borrows from Bluebook for the case itself.
The Parts of a Case Citation
Every court case citation is built from the same components. The case name identifies the parties, written with a lowercase “v.” between them and typically italicized: Brown v. Board of Education. Only the first-listed party on each side appears, even in cases with many plaintiffs or defendants.
The reporter information comes next. A reporter is a published series that collects decisions in chronological order. You give the volume number, then the reporter abbreviation, then the page where the opinion begins. “347 U.S. 483” means Volume 347 of the United States Reports, starting at page 483. Common abbreviations include U.S. for United States Reports (Supreme Court), F.3d for the Federal Reporter, Third Series (federal appellate decisions), and F. Supp. 2d or F. Supp. 3d for the Federal Supplement (federal district court decisions).
The citation closes with a parenthetical containing the court and year. For Supreme Court cases in the U.S. Reports, only the year is needed because the reporter itself identifies the court. For everything else, include an abbreviation for the deciding court: (2d Cir. 2001) for the Second Circuit, (D.N.J. 2010) for the District of New Jersey.
Bluebook Style
The Bluebook is the dominant citation system in American legal writing and the default for law schools, federal courts, and legal publications.1Cornell Law Institute. Bluebook A full Bluebook citation for a Supreme Court case looks like this:
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803).
One detail trips people up regularly. The Bluebook uses different abbreviation rules depending on whether the case name appears in running text or in a standalone citation sentence. In running text, you spell out most words in the case name. In a citation sentence or clause, you abbreviate common words like “Company” to “Co.” and “Association” to “Ass’n” according to the Bluebook’s tables.2The Bluebook. 10.2 Case Names
Pinpoint Citations
A pinpoint citation (a “pincite”) directs the reader to the exact page within an opinion where your quoted or referenced material appears. Place it after the first page of the case, separated by a comma:
Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 632 (1950).
Here, 629 is where the opinion starts and 632 is where the specific passage lives. For a span of pages, use an en dash or hyphen between the page numbers: 442–45. You can drop repetitious digits as long as the last two are retained. For non-consecutive pages, separate them with commas: 695, 697.
Short Forms
Once you’ve given a case its full citation, you don’t repeat the whole thing. The Bluebook offers two main short forms.
Use Id. when the case you’re citing is the same as the immediately preceding citation and that preceding citation contained only one source. You can add a pincite: Id. at 634. The period in Id. is always italicized.3The Bluebook. 4.1 Id.
When citing a previously cited case that isn’t the immediately preceding authority, use a shortened case name with the volume and reporter: Sweatt, 339 U.S. at 632. The supra form works for many legal sources but is generally not used for cases.
Signals
Signals are short introductions that tell the reader how the cited authority relates to your point. Omitting a signal means the source directly states the proposition. The most common are:
- See: the source clearly supports your point but indirectly.
- See also: additional, usually less direct support. Almost always needs a parenthetical explanation.
- Cf.: the source supports an analogous proposition. A parenthetical is expected.
- But see: the source indirectly contradicts your proposition.
- Compare … with …: a side-by-side comparison, often between jurisdictions.
Signals are italicized, and their capitalization depends on whether they begin a citation sentence.
Parentheticals
A parenthetical explanation appears at the end of a citation and gives the reader a concise reason to care about the source. These typically begin with a present participle and are not capitalized: (holding that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause). When citing a dissenting or concurring opinion, a separate weight-of-authority parenthetical comes first: (Scalia, J., dissenting). The weight-of-authority parenthetical always precedes any explanatory parenthetical.
APA Style
APA adapts legal citations to fit its author-date system. In text, italicize the case name and include the year in parentheses:
The Court struck down the statute (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954).
In a narrative citation, the same information flows into the sentence: In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court held that…
The reference list entry provides the full citation. For a Supreme Court case:
Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
APA italicizes the case name in the reference list. The 7th edition also allows you to append a URL if the reader is likely to access the case online, though it isn’t required for well-known cases in standard reporters. For lower federal courts and state courts, include the court abbreviation in the date parenthetical just as you would in Bluebook style.
MLA Style
MLA approaches court cases through its container system, treating the court as the author and the case name as the title of the work. In running text, italicize the case name: The decision in Brown v. Board of Education reshaped public education. For a parenthetical reference, key the reader to the first element of the Works Cited entry, which is the court name: (United States, Supreme Court).4MLA. Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style
A Works Cited entry for a Supreme Court decision found online follows this pattern:
United States, Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education. 17 May 1954. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/347/483.
For a federal appeals court decision:
United States, Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Moss v. Colvin. Docket no. 15-2272, 9 Jan. 2017. United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions.html.4MLA. Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style
MLA lists the government entity and court as the author, gives the full date rather than just the year, and includes the website name and URL where the case was accessed.
Chicago Style
Chicago handles court cases primarily in footnotes or endnotes, not in the bibliography. If you’re building a bibliography, court cases don’t typically appear in it. The Chicago Manual of Style recommends consulting the Bluebook for detailed legal citations, so footnote citations often look very similar to Bluebook format:
Meyer v. State of Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).
In running text, Chicago italicizes case names. If your paper discusses the same case repeatedly, a shortened note form works for subsequent references, consistent with Chicago’s general approach to repeated sources. For students and general academic writers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: cite the case in a footnote using Bluebook-style formatting, italicize the case name in your text, and skip the bibliography entry unless your instructor specifically asks for one.
Lower Federal and State Courts
Supreme Court citations are the simplest because the reporter (U.S.) tells you the court. For every other court, specify which one decided the case inside the date parenthetical.
Federal Courts of Appeals decisions appear in the Federal Reporter:
Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429 (2d Cir. 2001).
Federal district court decisions appear in the Federal Supplement:
City of Millville v. Rock, 683 F. Supp. 2d 319 (D.N.J. 2010).
State cases can add parallel citations. Many states publish decisions in both an official state reporter and a regional reporter such as the Pacific or Atlantic Reporter. When filing in a state court, local rules often require both citations side by side. When filing in federal court or writing for a general audience, the Bluebook typically calls for only the regional reporter citation. Check local court rules before submitting anything.
Unpublished Opinions and Cases From Databases
Not every case ends up in a printed reporter. Recent decisions, minor rulings, and opinions labeled “unpublished” or “nonprecedential” may only be available through databases like Westlaw or Lexis. When no official reporter citation exists, cite using the docket number and the database identifier:
Acosta-Robledo v. Furiel Auto Corp., No. 14-1693 (MEL), 2015 WL 5918730 (D.P.R. Oct. 26, 2015).5Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Basic Legal Citation – How to Cite Electronic Sources
The “2015 WL 5918730” is the Westlaw identifier. Lexis citations follow a similar pattern using LEXIS in place of WL. If the opinion has no database identifier, fall back to the slip opinion format: docket number, “slip op.,” the court, and the full date.
Unpublished opinions deserve extra caution. Some courts restrict or prohibit citing their nonprecedential decisions, and those decisions carry less weight even where permitted.6Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Basic Legal Citation – Citing Unpublished Cases and Variants When you do cite one, add “(unpublished)” in the date parenthetical so the reader knows what they’re dealing with. Check the issuing court’s rules before relying on an unpublished opinion in a brief.
Why Getting It Right Matters
In academic writing, a botched citation costs credibility. In legal practice, it can cost money, your case, or your license. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 requires that every attorney who signs a filing certify that the legal contentions in it are “warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law.”7Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 – Signing Pleadings, Motions, and Other Papers; Representations to the Court; Sanctions Citing a case for a proposition it doesn’t support, or citing a case that doesn’t exist, violates that certification.
Courts have imposed monetary fines, struck filings, and dismissed appeals over citation errors. Recent AI-generated legal research has produced briefs containing fabricated case names that looked plausible but pointed to nothing real; one court imposed a $2,000 fine despite the lawyer’s apology, and another struck an expert declaration entirely. Attorneys who tried to conceal their errors rather than correct them faced professional discipline. Double-check every citation against the actual opinion before you file or submit.