School of Government Legal Citation and Style Guide
School of Government
Legal Citation and Style Guide
Contents
Introduction
NORTH CAROLINA CASES?? 2
Case Reporters ?? 3
OFFICIAL CASE REPORTERS?? 3
UNOFFICIAL (REGIONAL) CASE REPORTER FOR
NORTH CAROLINA CASE LAW?? 3
Case Citations to Official Reporters?? 3
Parallel Citations??3
¡°Blank¡± Citations to Cases Not Published
in Official Reporter?? 3
PUBLISHED IN REGIONAL REPORTER?? 3
NOT PUBLISHED IN A REPORTER?? 4
FEDERAL CASES?? 4
United States Supreme Court?? 4
Federal District and Circuit Courts?? 5
CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS?? 5
DISTRICT COURT?? 5
GENERAL NOTES ABOUT CASE CITATIONS?? 6
What to Include/Exclude in Party
Names in Citations?? 6
Jurisdictional Indicators??7
Short-Form Citations??7
Pinpoint Citations??8
PINCITES: FAQS?? 8
MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS RELATED TO
QUOTED MATERIAL AND PINCITES?? 10
Parentheticals, Subsequent and Prior History, and
Order of Such Elements in Case Citations?? 11
PARENTHETICALS??11
Weight of Authority Parentheticals?? 11
Quoting/Citing Parentheticals?? 12
Explanatory Parentheticals?? 12
SUBSEQUENT AND PRIOR HISTORY¡ªTHE BASICS?? 13
ORDER OF PARENTHETICALS AND CASE
HISTORIES IN CITATIONS?? 14
Treatment of a Case Name That Is
Part of a Sentence?? 14
STATUTES??14
North Carolina Statutes, Session Laws?? 14
CITATIONS TO THE NORTH CAROLINA
GENERAL STATUTES?? 14
NORTH CAROLINA SESSION LAWS?? 15
Federal Statutes, Regulations?? 15
UNITED STATES CODE?? 15
CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS?? 16
FEDERAL REGISTER?? 16
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CONSTITUTIONS??16
Federal Constitution??16
TEXT REFERENCES?? 16
CITATIONS IN NOTES?? 17
State Constitutions??17
TEXT REFERENCES?? 17
CITATIONS IN NOTES?? 17
STATE ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS,
OPINIONS, ETC.?? 17
North Carolina Administrative Code?? 17
Decisions from State Administrative Bodies?? 18
NORTH CAROLINA OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE
HEARINGS (OAH)?? 18
NORTH CAROLINA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION?? 18
MISCELLANEOUS CITATION FORMS?? 19
Pattern Jury Instructions?? 19
Attorney General Opinions?? 19
North Carolina State Bar Ethics Opinions?? 19
North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct?? 19
CITATIONS TO SECONDARY SOURCES?? 20
Books??20
SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT BOOKS?? 20
BOOKS FROM OTHER PUBLISHERS?? 20
TREATISES/MULTI-VOLUME WORKS?? 20
UNIQUE CITATION FORMS?? 20
Periodicals??20
LAW REVIEW ARTICLES?? 20
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES?? 20
Print??20
Online??20
MAGAZINE ARTICLES?? 21
Print??21
Online??21
AMERICAN LAW REPORTS (ALR)
ANNOTATIONS/ARTICLES??21
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (ABA)
SECTION REPORTS?? 21
School of Government Bulletins?? 21
Websites??21
ONLINE-ONLY SOURCE?? 21
ARTICLE LINKED FROM WEBSITE MAIN PAGE?? 21
Blogs??21
Podcasts??21
ENTIRE SEASON?? 21
SINGLE EPISODE?? 22
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GENERAL RULES APPLICABLE TO
ALL CITED SOURCES?? 22
Use of Id.??22
Use of Supra and Infra??22
SHORT-FORM CITES?? 22
INTERNAL CROSS-REFERENCES?? 23
Use of Signals?? 23
NO SIGNAL NEEDED?? 23
SIGNAL REQUIRED?? 24
But see?? 25
Cf.??25
OTHER STYLE POINTS?? 25
Numbers/Numerals, Certain Ordinals?? 25
NUMBERS/NUMERALS??25
CERTAIN ORDINALS?? 26
In Textual Sentences?? 26
In Citations?? 26
E.g.??24
See??24
See also?? 24
INTRODUCTION
With increasing frequency, School of Government legal publications are being written according
to the style dictates of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Some faculty authors
(our Bluebook purists) are fully committed to this style scheme, while others modify it to align
more with personal preferences. Either approach is acceptable, provided it is followed consistently.
Most authors choose to source their legal material using a combination of superscripted footnote indicators in text and below-the-rule footnotes containing source information, while a few
use an inline citation method (see, e.g., North Carolina Crimes: A Guidebook on the Elements of
Crime). Again, neither form is better; it¡¯s a matter of preference.
The sections below discuss citation forms for sources most commonly referenced in School
legal publications. Deviations from Bluebook style are noted, as are trends in the way a particular
source is being treated by our authors. Additional information is offered when relevant.
Sample citations are shaded in grey.
NORTH CAROLINA CASES
The North Carolina Court System has two divisions, the Trial Division and the Appellate Division. The Trial Division comprises the District and Superior courts. The Court of Appeals and the
Supreme Court make up the Appellate Division. Appellate Division cases are the ones most cited
in works by School faculty.
In a publication discussing only North Carolina law, after making a first full reference to ¡°the
North Carolina Supreme Court,¡± one can use ¡°the supreme court¡± (lowercase) in subsequent references. In material that covers both state and federal law, to avoid confusion it¡¯s helpful to add
¡°state¡± before references to North Carolina¡¯s top-level court (¡°the state supreme court¡±) if decisions of the United States Supreme Court are also being discussed.
NOTE: Variations of state court names are acceptable.
?? North Carolina Supreme Court/Supreme Court of North Carolina
?? North Carolina Court of Appeals/Court of Appeals of North Carolina
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Case Reporters
OFFICIAL CASE REPORTERS
There are two official reporters in North Carolina (each one¡¯s abbreviation, for citation purposes,
is in parentheses).
?? North Carolina Reports (N.C.)
?? North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports (N.C. App.)
UNOFFICIAL (REGIONAL) CASE REPORTER FOR NORTH CAROLINA CASE LAW
There is one unofficial reporter covering North Carolina¡¯s appellate courts (it is referred to as a
¡°regional¡± reporter because it also includes cases from Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and
West Virginia).
?? South Eastern Reporter (S.E.)
Case Citations to Official Reporters
A basic case citation contains the following elements: (1) the case name, (2) the reporter volume
number, (3) the abbreviation for the reporter, (4) the page number in the reporter on which the
case begins, and (5) the date of the decision.
North Carolina Supreme Court: King v. Town of Chapel Hill, 367 N.C. 400 (2014).
North Carolina Court of Appeals: State v. Crow, 175 N.C. App. 119 (2005).
Parallel Citations
When a case is published in both an official and an unofficial reporter, some authors choose to
include both reporters in the citation of the case. The reference to the regional reporter is called
a parallel citation.
State v. Kochuk, 366 N.C. 549, 742 S.E.2d 801 (2013).
State v. Coleman, 228 N.C. App. 76, 743 S.E.2d 62 (2013).
NOTE: School faculty used parallel citations as a matter of course for years, but this practice is
on the decline. It is neither right nor wrong to include a parallel citation; it is simply a preference.
However, if parallels are used in a given publication, every citation should contain a parallel.
¡°Blank¡± Citations to Cases Not Published in Official Reporter
PUBLISHED IN REGIONAL REPORTER
When a decision is not, or has yet to be, published in an official reporter but is available in a
regional reporter, many faculty authors will cite the decision using a ¡°blank¡± cite, that is, three
underscores, followed by the abbreviated official reporter name, followed by another three
underscores.
___ N.C. ___
The blank cite is then followed, after a comma, by a regional reporter citation and the date of
decision (in parentheses).
State v. Bullock, ___ N.C. App. ___, 785 S.E.2d 746 (2016).
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ALTERNATIVE: Some authors choose to dispense with blank cites and use only the regional
reporter cite. This is acceptable, provided the jurisdictional indicator is placed before the decisional year in the parentheses at the end of the citation. The state court of appeals is abbreviated
¡°N.C. Ct. App.¡± and the state supreme court is abbreviated ¡°N.C.¡± for purposes of jurisdictional
labeling. Note that the jurisdictional abbreviation for the North Carolina Court of Appeals (N.C.
Ct. App.) is not the same as the abbreviation for the official reporter (N.C. App.) for this appellate body used in citations. (Jurisdictional abbreviations are found in Bluebook Table 1. For non¨C
North Carolina cases especially, it¡¯s a good idea to verify that an author has used the correct
abbreviation.)
State v. Bullock, 785 S.E.2d 746 (N.C. Ct. App. 2016).
NOT PUBLISHED IN A REPORTER
When a decision is not, or has yet to be, published in either an official or a regional reporter, some
faculty authors choose to use a ¡°double blank¡± citation.
State v. Huey, ___ N.C. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (Sept. 29, 2017).
Such cites often function as placeholders, with the author (or editor) updating them as the production process rolls on and publication of the decision finally occurs.
ALTERNATIVE: If a decision is not published in any reporter but is available on an electronic
database (e.g., Westlaw, LEXIS, Bloomberg Law), it is acceptable (and more helpful for readers, I
think), in lieu of a double blank cite, to use a database citation. This citation should contain the
following elements: (1) case name, (2) docket number, (3) unique number assigned to the case by
the database proprietor, (4) jurisdiction and date (including month and day) in parentheses.
State v. Huey, No. 355PA15, 2017 WL 4322611 (N.C. Sept. 29, 2017).
United States ex rel. Customs Fraud Investigations, LLC v. Victaulic Co., No. 13-2983,
2015 BL 103347 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 10, 2015).
FEDERAL CASES
United States Supreme Court
United States Reports¡ªabbreviated ¡°U.S.¡±¡ªis the official reporter of U.S. Supreme Court opinions. (Aside: After making a first full reference to ¡°United States Supreme Court,¡± it is common
practice to use ¡°U.S. Supreme Court¡± or ¡°the Court¡± (capitalized) in subsequent mentions.)
There are several unofficial reporters of U.S. Supreme Court cases (each one¡¯s abbreviation, for
citation purposes, is in parentheses following the full reporter name): Supreme Court Reporter
(S. Ct.); United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers¡¯ Edition (L. Ed.); and United States Law
Week (U.S.L.W.). If an opinion has been published in United States Reports, the citation to it does
not require a parallel.
Mich. Dep¡¯t of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990).
However, if a case has not been published in United States Reports at the time it is cited by an
author, the practice at the School has been to use a blank United States Reports cite, followed by a
citation to the case in the Supreme Court Reporter.
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United States v. Bryant, ___ U.S. ___, 136 S. Ct. 1954 (2016).
Occasionally, an author will know the United States Reports volume number in which a case
is slated to be published but not the page number on which it will appear, and a partial blank cite
will result.
United States v. Bryant, 580 U.S. ___, 136 S. Ct. 1954 (2016).
If the case is not available from United States Reports or from the Supreme Court Reporter
(uncommon, as the latter tends to publish quickly), use the blank U.S. cite followed by a citation
to an unofficial reporter, in this order of preference:
1. Lawyers¡¯ Edition¡ªresulting citation following case name: ___ U.S. ___, 123 L. Ed. 2d 456
(2017).
2. United States Law Week¡ªresulting citation: ___ U.S. ___, 123 U.S.L.W. 4567 (2017).
Federal District and Circuit Courts
CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
Decisions from U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal (the intermediate appellate courts at the federal
level) are published in the Federal Reporter (abbreviated F.). There are thirteen such courts, eleven
carrying sequential ordinal numbers (e.g., 1st, 2d, 3d Cir.) plus the District of Columbia Circuit
(D.C. Cir.) and the Federal Circuit (Fed. Cir.). North Carolina is located within the Fourth (4th)
Circuit. A parenthetical following the case name and reporter cite should contain the jurisdictional abbreviation and the year.
N.C. State Conference of NAACP v. McCrory, 831 F.3d 204 (4th Cir. 2017).
Federal Circuit Court opinions that have not been chosen for publication in the Federal
Reporter are published in the Federal Appendix, an unofficial reporter. This reporter is abbreviated F. App¡¯x (note that Westlaw incorrectly abbreviates it as ¡°Fed. Appx.¡±).
Fox v. South Carolina, 668 F. App¡¯x 442 (4th Cir. 2016).
If a case from a federal circuit court has not yet been published in the Federal Reporter but is
available on an electronic database, the database cite may be used (and can be updated if publication of the case occurs prior to files being sent to the printer).
Dankam v. Gonzales, No. 06-1277, 2007 WL 2028170 (4th Cir. July 16, 2007).
Faculty authors occasionally use blank cites for federal circuit court citations; the parallel in
such instances is the database citation.
Dankam v. Gonzales, ___ F.3d ___, No. 06-1277, 2007 WL 2028170 (4th Cir. July 16,
2007).
DISTRICT COURT
Decisions of federal district courts (the lower-level federal courts) are reported in the Federal
Supplement (abbreviated F. Supp.). A parenthetical following the case name and reporter cite
should contain the jurisdictional abbreviation and the year.
United States v. McDaniels, 147 F. Supp. 3d 427 (E.D. Va. 2015).
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