Supreme Court of the United States

U.S. Supreme Court case citation :

United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400, 132 S. Ct. 945, 181 L. Ed. 2d 911 (2012)
 

• United States v. Jones = Names of the parties in the case.
  • Note: In a trial court case, the first name listed is the plaintiff, the party bringing the suit. The name following the "v" is the defendant. If the case is appealed, as in this example, the name of the petitioner (appellant) is usually listed first, and the name of the respondent (appellee) is listed second. If the defendant in the trial court case brings an appeal, the defendant's name may be listed first in the appellate case.
• 565, 132, and 181 = Volume numbers of print reporters containing the full-text of the Court's opinion.
• U.S., S. Ct., and L. Ed. 2d = Bluebook abbreviations for the reporters containing U.S. Supreme Court opinions.
  • U.S. = United States Reports (official)
  • S.Ct. = Supreme Court Reporter (unofficial)
  • L. Ed. 2d = Supreme Court Reports Lawyers' Edition (unofficial)
• 400, 945, and 911 = First page of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the respective reporters.
  • Note: An incomplete citation such as "573 U.S. ___" indicates a page number is not yet available in the official reporter, United States Reports.
• 2012 = Year the case was decided.

• U.S. (United States Reports)

• S. Ct. (Supreme Court Reporter)

• L. Ed., L. Ed. 2d (Supreme Court Reports Lawyers' Edition)

• F., F.2d, F.3d (Federal Reporter)

• F. Cas. (Federal Cases)

• F.R.D. (Federal Rules Decisions)

• F. Supp., F. Supp. 2d (Federal Supplement)

• A.L.R. (American Law Reports)

• Am. Jur. (American Jurisprudence)

• C.J.S. (Corpus Juris Secundum)
   

Guides for Deciphering Legal Citations & Acronyms:

• Rule 10: Cases
• Table 1: United States Jurisdictions
• Table 6: Common Words in Case Names
• Table 7: Court Names