Kelli Amanda Metzger Knerr
Bluepages are used for non-academic citations
and are within the text.
This includes memos and briefs
Whitepages are used for academic citations and
are located in footnotes or endnotes.
This includes law reviews and journals
For your 1L class, you will be using the bluepages.
For the law review write-on competition in May,
you will be using the whitepages.
The Bluebook is really written for law review (hence
the large number of whitepages vs. bluepages).
Quick Reference for Whitepages: Inside front cover
Quick Reference for Bluepages: Inside back cover
– your hero.
Backcover has a “table of contents.”
When in doubt: Excellent Index (using common
sense terms)
Major difference is formatting and font changes
Underline or Italicize (just be consistent)
Case names (including procedural phrases – In re)
Titles of books and articles
Introductory Signals
Cross References (i.e. Id and Supra)
Words and phrases introducing related
authority (i.e. “quoted in”)
Never use large and small caps (used in Law
Review only)
Unless local rules dictate otherwise, citations are:
 within the text of the document
as full sentences
or as
clauses directly after the proposition
they supports
Use footnotes only when permitted by local
court rules.
Five basic components
Name of the case
Published source in which the case can be found
Parenthetical indicating the court and year of decision
Other parenthetical information, if any
Subsequent history of the case, if any
Ex: Holland v. Donnelly, 216 F. Supp. 2d 227, 243
(S.D.N.Y. 2002) (“[W]here the state courts have rejected
a constitutional claim, a habeas court may not grant
relief simply because it believes constitutional error has
been committed.”), aff’d, 324 F.3d 99 (2d Cir. 2003).
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Holland v. Donnelly, 216 F. Supp. 2d 227, 243 (S.D.N.Y. 2002)
1) First party
2) v. = versus (no s . . . This isn’t baseball).
3) Second party
4) Reporter Volume Number
5) Reporter Abbreviation
6) First page of case
7) Pinpoint citation or Pincite (specific page citing to)
8)Court Abbreviation
9) Year of decision
Citation Sentences
Begins with a capital letter and ends with a period.
Use to cite sources and authorities that relate to the
entire preceding sentence
If citing multiple cases in one citation sentence
(string citation), separate with a semi-colon.
Citation Clauses
Set off from the text by commas and immediately
follow the proposition to which they relate.
Do not begin with a capital letter unless the clause
begins with a source that would be capitalized.
Use to cite sources and authorities that relate to
only part of a sentence.
If there are multiple parties on each side of the “v” omit
all other than the first listed on each side.
If the party is an individual, use only the surname.
Omit et al or alternative names.
Abbreviate words and geographical units pursuant to
Tables T6 and T10 (unless the geographical unit is a named
party).
I.e. Commonwealth of Virginia v. Univ. of Fla.
Never abbreviate United States if it is a named party
Words of eight or more letters may be abbreviate if the
result is unambiguous and substantial space is saved.
The comma after the case name should not be
underlined/italicized.
Pincites tell the reader the exact page of the information or quotation.
Pincites are placed after the page in which the case report begins,
separated by a comma and one space. Use a pincite even when it is the first
page.
What happens when the information is on more than one page?
Page range
Indicate the first and last page separated by a dash. If the page is
three or more digits, drop repetitive digits other than the final two.
Exs: 96-98; 1020-26
Multiple non-consecutive pages
List each page, separated by a comma and one space
Ex: 103, 106, 132
Footnote
Give the page on which the footnote appears, “n.,” and the footnote
number with no space between the “n.” and the footnote number
Ex: 199 n.4
When citing decisions of the United States Supreme Court or
the highest court of any individual state, do not include the name
of the deciding court.
Use T1 for the abbreviation to courts in all major U.S.
jurisdictions
State abbreviations can be found in T10. Note: These are
not always the same as a postal abbreviations!
Spacing: Do not include a space between adjacent single
capital letters (S.D.N.Y.). Do include a space between a single
capital letter and a longer abbreviation (D. Conn.). Individual
numbers are treated as single capitals (A.2d).
Some professors (and local rules) require parallel citations (i.e.
a citation to both the official state reporter and the unofficial
regional and/or state-specific reporter). Be sure to include a
pincite for each reporter.
If a case is unreported but available on Lexis or Westlaw,
include the case name, docket number, database identifier,
court name, and full date of the most recent major
disposition of the case.
Ex: Silver v. Primero Reorganized Sch. Dist. No. 2, No. 06-cv-02088MSK-BNB, 2007 WL 2422156, at *2 (D. Colo. Aug. 22, 2007).
Page numbers, if assigned, should be preceded by an asterisk,
however, all other pincite rules apply.
Examples:
Palsgraf, 162 N.E. at 100.
Use
the first party’s name unless too common or the
party is the United States.
Id. at 100
Note:
The period is underlined/italicized!
Id. is only capitalized when it begins a citation
sentence, not a citation clause.
Refers to immediately preceding citation when
immediately preceding citation has one source.
The most common signals you will use in your first-year legal writing
course are “no signal” and “see.”
No signal – the citation sentence or clause contains no introductory
signal when it:
(1) directly states the proposition preceding it,
(2) is the source of a direct quotation, or
(3) identifies an authority referred to in the text.
If your authority does not meet any of these requirements,
you must provide a signal prior to your cite.
See – the citation sentence or clause clearly supports the proposition.
The difference between “no signal” and “see” is one of degree.
You use “see” when the authority does not directly state the
proposition but the proposition is obviously supported by the
source.
Signals are a monster!
Capitalize when used to begin a citation sentence;
lowercase when used to begin a citation clause.
When more than one is used, put them in the
order listed in rule 1.2.
When in doubt, see Rule 1.2.
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Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
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Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601-9675 (2006).
1) Official name of the act. Do not use if only citing one section.
2) Published source in which the act may be found
3) § symbol. Use one if one section, use two if multiple sections.
4) Section(s) referencing
5) Parenthetical of year published (code citations) or year statute passed
(citations to session laws). (Note: U.S.C. is only published every six
years. Citations to U.S.C. should be the codifying year, i.e. 2000, 2006).
If the year is included in the name of the statute, the year parenthetical is
omitted (see page 16).
If citing an annotated version, include the publisher in the parenthetical
i.e. (West 1999).
42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Drop the year parenthetical and name (if any)
Id.
Only if in immediately preceding citation.
When writing a statement of facts, you will need to cite the
documents from which you got your facts.
Elements
Name of the document
Use Table BT1 to find abbreviations
Ex: “Record” become “R.”
Never use an abbreviation if it will confuse the reader
The pinpoint citation
Date of the document, if required.
Enclose the citation in parenthesis.
If it is a citation sentence, place the period inside the
parenthesis. If it is a citation clause that ends the sentence,
place the period outside the parenthesis.
Ex: (Mot. to Quash Subpoena ¶¶ 2, 3, 4, 6, Feb. 23, 2009.)
Can use a “short cite” after having a full cite as long as it is
clear to the reader. Ex: (Mot. ¶ 8.)
I.e. (Smith Dep. 27:4-28:2, Feb.5, 2001.) becomes (Smith Dep.
30:4-18.)
For Court documents, only use id. if significant space will be
saved.
Page references should not be proceeded by “p.”, but other
subdivisions should be recognized (such as footnotes).
You do not need to precede pincites with “at”, although
sometimes it is customary, such as when citing the record.
Provide the date when more than one such document bears the
same title, the date of the document is significant to the
discussion, OR as needed to avoid confusion.
The witness ran down the street(Compl. ¶ 7) and saw the
defendant steal the television (Knerr Aff. ¶ 15).
(Charge to the Grand Jury, 4, Jan. 26, 2009; Letter to Governor
Rogers, Feb. 2, 2009.)
(Pet’r’s Br. 6.)
(R. at 9.)
(Toms Aff. ¶ 2, June 2, 2003.)
(Toms Aff. ¶5, October 15, 2004.)
kam612@dsl.psu.edu
Research.ed@pennstatelawreview.org