The precise format of a case citation depends on various factors, including the jurisdiction, court, and type of case. Review the rest of this section on case citations and the relevant rules in The Bluebook before trying to format a case citation for the first time. See R10, pp. 95-118.
Elements of a Citation
1. Case Names
2. Reporters & Other Sources
3. Court & Jurisdiction
4. Date or Year
5. Parenthetical Information
6. Prior & Subsequent History
The Bluebook's Quick Style Guide provides some online examples to illustrate how to cite commonly used sources in accordance with the Whitepages, which are intended for use in law review footnotes.
A reporter is a publication containing the opinions of a particular court or jurisdiction, organized chronologically by date of decision. The opinions of a given court or jurisdiction are often published in multiple reporters. For instance, opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court are published in three reporters: United States Reports (U.S.), Supreme Court Reports (S. Ct.), and United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (L. Ed. and L. Ed. 2d). If a case is published in a reporter, The Bluebook in T1 explains which reporter is the preferred one to cite for federal and state cases.
In court documents, a full case name is generally italicized or underlined.
For a law review article footnote, the first full citation of the case name is not underlined or italicized.