How to Cite a Legal Case: Bluebook Format, Signals, and Short Forms

To cite a legal case, write the case name in italics, then the volume number, the reporter abbreviation, the first page of the opinion, and a parenthetical containing the court (abbreviated) and the year. Assembled: Case Name, [Volume] [Reporter] [Page] ([Court] [Year]). A finished example looks like United States v. Jones, 565 F.3d 1200 (9th Cir. 2009). If the reporter itself identifies the deciding court, as “U.S.” does for the Supreme Court, the parenthetical holds only the year: Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803).1United States Department of Justice. OSG Citation Manual That formula is the Bluebook standard used by most federal courts, law schools, and legal journals.2LII / Legal Information Institute. The Bluebook

The Five Parts of a Case Citation

Every citation is built from the same five ingredients in the same order.3William Mitchell College of Law. Bluebook Citation

The case name. Identifies the parties. In briefs, motions, and memos, italicize (or underline) the full name, including the “v.” between the parties: Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona.

The volume number. The number of the bound reporter volume (or its electronic equivalent) that contains the opinion.

The reporter abbreviation. A short code for the series: “U.S.” for the United States Reports, “F.3d” or “F.4th” for the Federal Reporter, “F. Supp. 3d” for the Federal Supplement, “N.E.2d” for the North Eastern Reporter, and so on. Single-capital abbreviations close up (F.3d, S.W.2d); abbreviations with longer elements take spaces (F. Supp. 2d, S. Ct.).

The starting page. The first page of the opinion inside that volume.

The court and year parenthetical. The court abbreviation plus the year of decision. Drop the court when the reporter name already tells the reader which court decided the case.

Everything after the case name sits in regular roman type. The pieces run together with commas and spaces, no periods between the volume and reporter or between the reporter and page.

Pinpoint Citations

A pinpoint citation (a “pincite” or “jump cite”) sends the reader to the exact page you are quoting or relying on, not just the first page of the opinion. Put a comma after the starting page, then the target page. If a case begins on page 456 of volume 231 of the Federal Reporter, Second Series, and the passage you care about sits on page 479, the citation reads 231 F.2d 456, 479. Pinpoints are expected any time you quote or lean on a specific passage; leaving them out signals that you have not read the case closely.

Citing Federal Cases

U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court decisions belong in the United States Reports, abbreviated “U.S.” The reporter identifies the court, so the parenthetical carries only the year: Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803).1United States Department of Justice. OSG Citation Manual If a decision has not yet appeared in the United States Reports, cite the Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.) or, failing that, the Lawyers’ Edition (L. Ed. 2d), in that order of preference.

Federal Courts of Appeals

Circuit court decisions live in the Federal Reporter, now in its third and fourth series (F.3d and F.4th). Because the Federal Reporter covers every circuit, the parenthetical must identify which one: United States v. Jones, 565 F.3d 1200 (9th Cir. 2009).

Federal District Courts

District court opinions appear in the Federal Supplement (F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d, or F. Supp. 3d). The parenthetical names the specific district: Smith v. Acme Corp., 400 F. Supp. 3d 150 (S.D.N.Y. 2020).

Specialized Federal Courts

Tax Court decisions use “T.C.”: Allied Equip. Leasing II v. Comm’r, 97 T.C. 575 (1991). Bankruptcy decisions appear in the Bankruptcy Reporter (“B.R.”), with a parenthetical identifying the specific court, such as (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2019) for a bankruptcy court decision or (B.A.P. 1st Cir. 1997) for a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel decision.4Cornell University Law School. Basic Legal Citation

Citing State Cases

State citations follow the same structure, with two wrinkles: parallel citations and neutral citations.

Parallel Citations

Many states publish their own official reporter alongside West’s regional reporter. A parallel citation gives both, official first, then regional: State v. Smith, 789 Ill. 2d 10, 123 N.E.2d 456 (2000). A number of courts require parallel citations in briefs filed with them. The Bluebook’s default rule for law review writing is the opposite: cite only the regional reporter and identify the court in the parenthetical. Check the local rules for the court you are filing in before choosing.

Regional Reporters

West groups state appellate decisions into seven regional reporters: Atlantic, North Eastern, North Western, Pacific, South Eastern, South Western, and Southern. When you cite only the regional reporter, put the state court abbreviation in the parenthetical so the reader knows whose court decided the case.

Neutral (Public Domain) Citations

Roughly seventeen states use a neutral citation format that does not depend on any commercial publisher. The citation carries the year, a court abbreviation, and a sequential case number assigned by the clerk, and pinpoints use paragraph numbers instead of pages: Smith v. Jones, 1997 ND 15, ¶ 12.5Cornell Law School. How to Cite Judicial Opinions – Basic Legal Citation Adopters include Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, among others. Where a neutral citation exists, list it first and follow with the regional reporter as a parallel cite.

Introductory Signals

The word in front of a citation tells the reader how strongly the case supports your point. The main ones:

  • No signal: the case states the proposition directly, or you are quoting it.
  • See: the case clearly supports your point but through an inferential step. The most common signal.
  • See also: additional support after you have already cited a primary source. Include an explanatory parenthetical.
  • Cf.: the case supports your point by analogy. An explanatory parenthetical is essentially required.
  • But see: the case supports the opposite of what you just said. This is how you flag contrary authority honestly.
  • See generally: background reading rather than direct support. Include an explanatory parenthetical.

Signals are italicized in citation sentences in practitioner documents. Separate multiple authorities under one signal with semicolons; when a new signal introduces a new group, capitalize its first letter and start a new citation clause.

Parentheticals and Subsequent History

Two kinds of parentheticals commonly follow the date. Weight-of-authority parentheticals describe procedural posture or a judge’s role: (per curiam), (en banc), (Lastname, J., dissenting), (Lastname, J., concurring).6Georgetown Law. Parentheticals Explanatory parentheticals describe what the case actually held and typically begin with an “-ing” verb, uncapitalized: (holding that municipalities are “persons” under § 1983). If the parenthetical is a full-sentence direct quotation, capitalize the first word and keep the closing punctuation.

Subsequent history matters when another court later reversed, affirmed, or vacated the decision you are citing. Add it after the main citation, introduced by an italicized abbreviation: Lawson v. FMR LLC, 670 F.3d 61 (1st Cir. 2012), rev’d, 571 U.S. 429 (2014). Skipping this misleads the reader about whether the case is still good law. Denials of certiorari and history on remand can generally be omitted unless they matter to your argument. Prior history is omitted unless it is relevant.

Short Forms After the First Citation

Once you have given a case its full citation, later references use a short form.

Id.

Use id. to refer back to the immediately preceding citation, but only when that citation contained a single authority.3William Mitchell College of Law. Bluebook Citation Alone, id. points to the same source and page. To point to a different page in the same case, add “at” and the new page: Id. at 100. Capitalize Id. when it starts a citation sentence, and italicize it every time.

Shortened Case Names

When the case is not the immediately preceding authority, use a shortened case name, the volume, the reporter, and “at” plus the pinpoint page. The usual short form is the first party’s surname, dropping procedural phrases like “In re” or “State v.” After a full citation to Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), a later reference to page 140 reads Marbury, 5 U.S. at 140. The shortened name has to be distinctive enough for the reader to identify which case you mean.

Do Not Use Supra for Cases

The Bluebook prohibits supra as a short form for cases. Supra is reserved for non-case authorities such as books, reports, legislative hearings, and periodical articles.7The Bluebook Online. 4.2 Supra and Hereinafter For cases, statutes, and constitutions, use id. or a shortened citation instead.

Slip Opinions and Database-Only Cases

Recent decisions often exist only as slip opinions or database entries. For a slip opinion, the citation includes the case name, the docket number, “slip op.” with a pinpoint page, the court abbreviation, and the full date: Ahmed v. Noem, No. 25-1351, slip op. at 41 (D.D.C. Aug. 8, 2025).5Cornell Law School. How to Cite Judicial Opinions – Basic Legal Citation

For an opinion on Westlaw or Lexis but not yet in a reporter, use the docket number and the database citation, with an asterisk before the pinpoint page to signal database pagination: Ahmed v. Noem, No. 25-1351, 2025 WL 281130, at *24 (D.D.C. Aug. 8, 2025). Once the case appears in a bound reporter, update the citation to the volume-reporter-page format.

Mistakes to Watch For

  • Spacing in reporter abbreviations. “F.3d” closes up; “F. Supp. 3d” takes spaces. Single-capital abbreviations close; longer-word abbreviations space out.
  • Reversing parallel citation order. Official state reporter first, regional reporter second.
  • Using id. after a string citation. If the preceding sentence held multiple authorities, id. is ambiguous. Switch to a shortened case name.3William Mitchell College of Law. Bluebook Citation
  • Omitting subsequent history. Citing a reversed case without noting the reversal reads as either carelessness or an attempt to mislead, and judges notice.
  • Missing pinpoint citations. A citation without a pincite tells the reader the case “somewhere” supports you. Courts expect you to point to the exact page.

Citation generators and database exports handle party names, reporter abbreviations, parallel citations, and subsequent history unevenly. Treat their output as a first draft and check each citation against the reporter itself before filing.