Bluebook Citation

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Bluebook Citation
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What is the Bluebook?

• The Bluebook A Uniform System of Citation, 19th
  ed.
• Compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law
  Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of
  Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Yale Law
  Journal.

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Other Legal Citation Formats

• ALWD Citation Manual (pronounced all-wood or
  owl-wood)
• Green Book (Texas)
• California Style Manual
• APA
• MLA
• Bluebook citation format is most frequently used
  

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Purpose of Citation

• Identify the document and document part to which
  the writer is referring
• Provide the reader with sufficient information
  to find the document or document part
• Furnish important additional to assist readers
  in deciding whether or not to pursue the
  reference

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Importance of Citations

• Judges care about citations and how briefs are
  drafted.
• "Plaintiffs . . . complaint . . . could have
  been drafted in crayon on the back of a napkin.
  Castro v. City of Chicago,1998 WL 801814, at 2
  (N.D.Ill. Nov. 13, 1998).

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Bluebook Introduction

• For generations, law students, lawyers,
  scholars, judges, and other legal professionals
  have relied on The Bluebooks unique system of
  citation in their writing.

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What is a citation?

• Blacks Law Dictionary defines citation as
• A reference to a legal precedent or authority,
  such as a case, statute, or treatise, that either
  substantiates or contradicts a given position
• Often shortened to cite

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Types of Legal Sources
Primary Sources Constitutions Cases Statutes
Regulations Secondary Sources Books/Treatises
Encyclopedias Dictionaries ALRs Legal
Encyclopedias Practice Guides Periodicals (law
review/bar journal articles) Newspapers/Magazines
Internet Sources

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Constitutions
See Bluebook Rule 11 1.The state (or country)
abbreviation 2.The abbreviation for
"Constitution" and 3.The section or subdivision
you are citing. Examples U.S. Const. art. 1,
8 Minn. Const. art. I, 13

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Statutes

Statutes enacted by legislature (Congress or
state legislature) Regulations enacted by
administrative agencies Codes a systematic
collection or revision of laws, rules, or
regulations Code can refer to statutes or
regulations
Federal Statutes compiled in the United States
Code U.S.C. or U.S. Code Federal
Regulations compiled in the Code of Federal
Regulations CFR
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Federal Statutes
1.The title number 2.The code's abbreviation
3.The section number of the statute and 4.The
year on the spine of the code volume (not the
year the statute became effective)
Example 17 U.S.C. 1201 (2006)

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Federal Statutes
Example 17 U.S.C. 1201 (2006) Note
Many judges and practitioners now delete the
Year of the Code Example 17 U.S.C.
1201
Year of the code

Section number
Volume number
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USCA and USCS
Where possible, cite the official code and not
unofficial codes Unofficial versions of the U.S.
Code from commercial publishers United States
Code Annotated (West) 17 U.S.C.A. 1201 (West
2000) United States Code Service
(LexisNexis) 17 U.S.C.S. 1201 (LexisNexis
2004)

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State Statutes
Varies by state Minnesota Minn. Stat.
609.185 (2010) Wisconsin Wis. Stat. 134.98
(2010) Utah Utah Code section 30310.4
(2008) Utah Code Ann. 573103 (Supp.2010)

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Cases Background

• A court opinion is the courts written statement
  explaining its decision in a case or opinion
  often written by an appellate court.
• Judicial opinions are printed in bound
• law reporters or reporters.

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Law Reporter

• A law reporter (or law report) is a published
  volume of judicial decisions by a particular
  court or group of courts.
• Law reports may be either official (published by
  the government) or unofficial (published by a
  private publisher).

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Components of a Citation

• Brown v. Helvering, 291 U.S. 193 (1934)

Page Number
Volume Number
Names of the Parties
Year of the Decision
Name of the Reporter
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U.S. Supreme Court Cases

• The opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court are
  published officially in a set of case books
  called the United States Reports.
• In the citation Morgan v. United States, 304
  U.S. 1 (1938), 304 U.S. 1 is the abbreviation
  from the U.S. Reports.

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Commercial Publishers

• Supreme Court cases also appear in
• The Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.) published by
  Thomson-West and
• The United States Supreme Court Reports,
  Lawyers' Edition 2d (L.Ed.) published by Lexis

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Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.)
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United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers'
Edition (L.Ed., L.Ed.2d)
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What is a parallel citation?

• Reference to a case that has been reported in
  more than one reporter.
• Bluebook citation reads Morgan v. United
  States, 304 U.S. 1 (1938)
• The same reference including parallel citations
  reads Morgan v. United States, 304 U.S. 1, 58
  S.Ct. 773, 82 L.Ed. 1129 (1938)
• The main citation is to the U.S. Reports (U.S.)
  and the parallel citations are to the Supreme
  Court Reporter (S.Ct.) and to the Lawyer's
  Edition (L.Ed.)

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What is the Federal Reporter?

• The Federal Reporter (F.2d or F.3d) is case
  law reporter containing opinions from the U.S.
  courts of appeals and the court of Federal
  Claims.

Example Mejdrech v. Met-Coil Systems Corp., 319
F.3d 910 (7th Cir. 2003)
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What is the Federal Supplement?

• The Federal Supplement Reporter (F.Supp. or
  F.Supp.2d) is case law reporter containing
  select opinions from U.S. District Courts.

Example Potts v. Dyncorp Intern. LLC, 465
F.Supp.2d 1245 (M.D.Ala. 2006)
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State Cases Regional Reporters

• State cases are published in regional reporters.
  West's National Reporter System is a set of
  reporters that divides the 50 states and the
  District of Columbia into seven regions
• South Western Reporter (S.W.2d, S.W.3d)
• Atlantic Reporter (A.2d)
• North Eastern Reporter (N.E.2d)
• North Western Reporter (N.W.2d)
• Pacific Reporter (P.2d, P.3d)
• South Eastern Reporter (S.E.2d)
• Southern Reporter (So.2d)

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Map of Regional Reporters
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Minnesota State Cases

• Minnesota Supreme Court
• Minnegasco, Inc. v. County of Carver, 447 N.W.2d
  878 (Minn. 1989)
• Minnesota Court of Appeals
• Great W. Cas. Co. v. Christenson, 450 N.W.2d 153
  (Minn. Ct. App. 1990)

Minnesota State Capitol
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Wisconsin State Cases

• Wisconsin Supreme Court
• Aicher v. Wis. Patients Comp., 613 N.W.2d 849,
  865 (Wis. 2000)
• Wisconsin Court of Appeals
• Sudgen v. Bock, 641 N.W.2d 693 (Wis. Ct. App.
  2002)

Wisconsin Supreme Court
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Use lowercase v.

• Use the lowercase v. in case citation
• Correct Smith v. Jones
• Incorrect Smith vs. Jones
• Incorrect Smith V. Jones

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Party Names

• Do not include first names of parties, unless
  they are the name of a corporation
• Cite as Smith v. Jones
• Do not cite as John Smith v. Paul Jones
• Cite as Baker v. John Smith Inc.

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Party Names

• If there is more than one plaintiff or
  defendant, use only the first party on each side.
• Correct Bush v. Gore
• Incorrect George W. Bush and Richard Cheney,
  Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.

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Case Names

• Use italics (not underlines)
• Correct Bush v. Gore
• Incorrect Bush vs. Gore
• Incorrect Bush v. Gore

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Dates

• Generally, include only the year of the
  decision.
• Example (reported case)
• Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000)
• If the case is unpublished, include the month,
  day, and year.
• Example (unreported case)
• Castro v. City of Chicago,1998 WL 801814
  (N.D.Ill. Nov. 13, 1998).

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United States

• Use United States when the United States is a
  party
• Do not use U.S. or United States of America
• United States is never abbreviated when the
  United States is a party in a case name. However,
  it may be abbreviated as part of another partys
  name, like any other word in T.11. In textual
  sentences, U.S. may be used as an adjective,
  but it should never be used as a noun.
• Example United States v. Church of Scientology
  W. U.S., 973 F.2d 715 (9th Cir. 1992).

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Short Cite Consecutive Citations

• Give the long cite when a case is first cited in
  a document. On references to the same case
  immediately following that case (or consecutive
  citations) use the short cite format with Id.
• Full cite McDonald v. Eubanks, 731 S.W.2d 769,
  770 (Ark. 1987).
• Short cite still citing page 770 Id. Short
  cite now citing page 771 Id. at 771.

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Using Id.

• If the same citation immediately follows the
  previous cite (consecutive citations), use Id.
• If the same citation immediately follows the
  previous cite (consecutive citations) but on a
  different page, use Id. at page number
• Example (same page) Id.
• Example (page 97) Id. at 97.

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Short Cite Non-consecutive Citations

• If the long cite has been previously given but
  the cite does not immediately follow the cite
  (e.g. new cites are given), use the short cite
  format for non-consecutive citations.
• Long Cite (first reference in document)
• The Fourth Amendment protects people, not
  places. Katz v. United States, 375 U.S. 76, 82
  (1965).
• Short Cite (non-consecutive citation)
• The Fourth Amendment protects people, not
  places. Katz, 375 U.S. at 82.

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What is a pinpoint citation?

• A pinpoint citation is the page on which a
  quotation or relevant passage appears, as opposed
  to the page on which a case or article begins.
• For example, the number 217 refers to the page
  number in the pinpoint citation for Baker v.
  Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 217 (1962)

Also called jump cite pincite
McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 540
U.S. 93 (2003) is a U.S. Supreme Court case 300
pages in length. Imagine trying to find a quote
in a 300 page case without a pinpoint cite.
Aaaargh!
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Pincite

• More examples
• Long cite The Fourth Amendment protects
  people, not places. Katz v. United States, 375
  U.S. 76, 82 (1965).
• Short cite (consecutive) The Fourth Amendment
  protects people, not places. Id. at 82.
• Short cite (non-consecutive) The Fourth
  Amendment protects people, not places. Katz v.
  United States, 375 U.S. at 82.
• The first page of the opinion is on page 76 and
  the page where the quotation appears is on page
  82.

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More Examples Cases

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• Kennedy v. Nat'l Juvenile Det. Ass'n, 187 F.3d
  690 (7th Cir. 1999)
• U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota
• Haghighi v. Russian-American Broad. Co., 945 F.
  Supp. 1233 (D. Minn. 1996)

U.S. District Court in Minneapolis
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Unpublished Cases

• Cases published in law reporters are reported
  or published cases.
• Unpublished cases may also appear on court
  websites or Westlaw and Lexis, the leading online
  legal research services.
• Courts may have local rules that prohibit
  attorneys from citing unpublished cases.

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Abbreviations
Be sure to use proper abbreviations in the
Bluebook Case names (Table T6) Example
Association Assn. Court names in citing cases
(Table T7) Example Probate Court Prob. Ct.
Geographical terms in citing cases (Table
T10) Example Minnesota Minn. Periodicals
(Table T13) Example Wall Street Journal Wall
St. J.

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More Abbreviations in Case Names

• Check Table 6 for common abbreviations in case
  names
• Association Assn
• Committee Comm.
• Corporation Corp.
• University Univ.
• Example Jones v. Univ. of Minn.

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Law Review Articles

• 1.The authors' name full as it appears in the
  article
• 2.The title of the article or headline
  (italicized)
• 3.Volume number of the law review
• 4.The abbreviated name of the law review
• 5.The page number of the article's first page
  and
• 6.The law review's year of publication.
• Example
• Dan L. Burk Julie E. Cohen, Fair Use
  Infrastructure for Rights Management Systems, 15
  Harv. J.L. Tech. 41 (2001)

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Other Secondary Sources

• Legal Encyclopedia
• 2 Am. Jur. 2d Administrative Law 416
• American Law Report (ALR) Annotation
• Mitchell J. Waldman, When Will Federal Court of
  Appeals Review Issue
• Raised by Party for First Time on Appeal Where
  Legal Developments
• After Trial Affect Issue, 76 A.L.R. Fed. 522
  (1986)

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Newspaper Articles

• Include author, title, name of publication, date,
  and page
• Example
• Steven Greenhouse, Democrats Drop Key Part of
  Bill to
• Assist Unions, N.Y. Times, July 17, 2009, at A1

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Internet Resources
Follow Rule 18.2.2 when citing material online
sources Where possible, cite the printed
source Provide 1) Author's name 2) Title 3)
Date of publication and 4) URL Do not simply
provide the URL Example Emily Bazelon, In
Defense of the New Judicial Activists, Slate
(Aug. 9, 2010), http//www.slate.com/id/2263347/.

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When in Doubt?

• See how the source is cited in a recent law
  review article or recent case from the U.S.
  Supreme Court or state supreme court
• Used by legal practitioners
• Think of purposes of citation
• Direct reader to a particular source
• Adds credibility to legal arguments
• Direct and persuasive authority

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Web Resources

• http//www.law.cornell.edu/citation/
• Introduction to Legal Citation Lots of Examples
• http//www.legalbluebook.com/
• Official Bluebook Site (online subscription
  available and FAQs)
• http//www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/bluebook1_7.cf
  m
• Georgetown Law Library