Legal Citation: Basic Concepts and Moves

Basics of Citations

Why Cite?

Attorneys cite legal authorities to show how the facts and the law support what they are analyzing or arguing. Same with courts: look at how the cases you are reading use citations.
The core idea is that the lawyer or judge must ground their analyses and arguments in what the law actually says. So they have to back up their analyses and assertions with precise citations.
Citations are where you “put your cards on the table.” Citations answer the question: “What is the legal basis of that statement, that claim, or that analysis?”
As legal writing professor Brian Larson explains, “Often [citations] provide premises to legal arguments in the form of rules, examples for legal analogies, or policy concerns; without such premises, legal arguments cannot stand.”

The Parts of a Basic Case Law Citation

Legal citation styles for case law provide the law-trained reader with crucial information about who the parties were, where the case comes from (and how authoritative it is), how old it is, and where to find it. Here are three color-coded examples:

Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 537 U.S. 79 (2002).

[Parties were an individual and a corporation. The case is from the Supreme Court of the United States, so it’s in the US Reports. You can find it in volume 537 of the US Reports, and the Court’s opinion starts on p. 79. It was decided in 2002]. 20801, Inc. v. Parker, 249 S.W.3d 392 (Tex. 2008).

[Parties were an individual and a corporation. The case is from the Texas Supreme Court. You can find it in volume 249 of the 3rd edition of the Southwest Reports, and the court’s opinion starts on p. 392. It was decided in 2008].

Schneider v. State, 623 S.W.3d 38 (Tex. App. 2021).

[Parties were the state of Texas and an individual. The case is from an intermediate appellate court in Texas. You can find it in volume 623 of the 3rd edition of the Southwest Reports, and the court’s opinion starts on p. 38. It was decided in 2021].

Test your understanding: Try color-coding the parts of these cases' citations and writing the same kinds of descriptive sentences that you see above. Medina v. Zuniga, 593 S.W.3d 238 (Tex. 2019). Douglas v. Aguilar, 599 S.W.3d 105 (Tex. App. 2020).

Case Law Citations Look the Way That They Look Because They Use the Metaphor of the Old-School Bound Book

In citing case law, citation styles still use the metaphor of the old-school bound books that were the only game in town pre-Internet, even though most people who work with case law have been doing so in electronic formats for a long time. Yes, you can still buy the bound books. They cost a ton of money (tens of thousands of dollars) and take up enormous shelf space. Most legal research and citations these days use electronic representations of the book format.

Here is a picture of volumes 534-40 of the United States Reports, which are the old-school bound official reports of Supreme Court opinions.

This is the best source for citing Supreme Court cases but there is a significant lag between when cases are decided and when they make it into the venerable pages of the United States Reports.

Let’s imagine that we pull vol. 537 off the shelf and flip to page 79, where the Court’s opinion in Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., 537 U.S. 79 (2002) begins.

When we open the book to page 79, where the Court’s opinion in Howsam begins, we would see this on the printed page:

Let’s flip through Howsam and see how long it is.

It turns out that Howsam is very short by SCOTUS standards. It’s just nine pages total, including the Syllabus (summary), majority opinion, and a one-page concurring opinion by Justice Thomas. It ends on p. 87 of the 537th volume of the U.S. Reports, where Justice Thomas’s concurrence ends:

Now let’s see what Howsam looks like in electronic form on Google Scholar. Unlike the bound book with individual pages running from 79-87, the online version is presented as a single text that you can scroll from top to bottom. (It also omits the Syllabus, which is a summary of the case).

See the grey numbers in the left margin? I have circled them in red. Those numbers track the pages of the bound volume. These numbers should match the bound volume as it moves from page to page. Thus, the electronic version of Howsam uses the metaphor of the bound book by showing you where particular text appears in the bound volume. On Justia, another online source for case law, the page numbers appear with dividing lines and skips in the text, mimicking the printed book.

Again, though, the electronic version of Howsam uses the metaphor of the bound book by showing you where particular text appears in the bound volume.

Citing case law becomes a lot less mysterious when you remember that the citation style uses the metaphor of the printed book to communicate important information to the law-trained reader about

who the parties to the reported case were,
where the case comes from (and how authoritative it is),
how old it is, and
where to find it.

Pinpoint Citations aka Pincites are Your Friend

Important Your citations to case law will, almost always, need to be pinpoints (sometimes called pincites). Don't condemn the reader to searching through a case opinion to verify your citation. They won't do that and they will hold it against you for suggesting that they should.

The ultimate test of effective legal writing is how well you can put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Even a short case like Howsam is nine pages long. You would not want to tell your reader, in essence, “This thing I say is in the case really does appear there. Trust me. Just read through all these pages of dense legal analysis until you find it.” That situation will not be successful.

You will be much more precise if you anchor specific uses of material from case law in specific pages through pinpoint citations.

Pinpoint, pinpoint, pinpoint! You have the information that you need to anchor citations in specific pages from cases, even though you are not working with the printed book versions of cases. See examples below.

Basic Moves of Citing Case Law: Examples

You must give the full citation to a case the first time you cite it, but not after that. After the first citation, you will use some version of Id., Id. at, or a short-form citation as explained below.

Case Citation Move, Type 1: Quotation + Pinpoint

quote from the case as the first use of it in your document and
pinpoint that quotation to the page on which it appears

“A defendant moving for summary judgment on the affirmative defense of limitations has the burden to conclusively establish that defense.” KPMG Peat Marwick v. Harrison Cnty. Hous. Fin. Corp., 988 S.W.2d 746, 748 (Tex. 1999).

Formula: opening double quotation mark + quoted passage + period inside closing double quotation mark + italicized name of party + italicized v. + italicized name of party + comma + volume number + identification of which case reporter the case appears in + first page of case + comma + pinpoint page where the quote appears + opening parentheses + identification of court issuing opinion + year + closing parenthesis + period.

Type 1 Variation: incorporate quoted material into your own sentence

In deciding whether to sanction a party for discovery abuse, Texas courts are guided by the principle that “sanctions must not be excessive.” TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp. v. Powell, 811 S.W.2d 913, 917 (Tex. 1991).

What similarities and differences do you see between the first example and the variation? If you were to write a formula for the variation, what would its parts be?

Case Citation Move, Type 2: Summary + Pinpoint

summary from the case as the first use of it in your document and
pinpoint to the page on which the summarized material appears

The specialized knowledge that qualifies a witness to offer an expert opinion may be derived from specialized education, practical experience, a study of technical works or a combination of these things. Wyatt v. State, 23 S.W.3d 18, 27 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000).

Formula: summarized material + period + italicized name of party + italicized v. + italicized name of party + comma + volume number + identification of which case reporter the case appears in + first page of case + comma + pinpoint page where the summarized material appears + opening parenthesis + identification of court issuing opinion + year + closing parenthesis + period.

Case Citation Move, Type 3: Id. or Id. at

Id. means "same thing exactly." Use this move to cite a case that you have already cited in your document but without intervening citations to other legal authorities. Remember that the full citation has to appear only once.

First situation: same case as immediately preceding sentence, same page

Since health care costs are complicated and far from transparent, “It is not uncommon or surprising that a given medical provider may have no basis for knowing what is a reasonable fee for a specific service.” Gunn v. McCoy, 554 S.W.3d 645, 673 (Tex. 2018). However, insurance company employees who use price-comparison databases with regional and national data “are generally well-suited to determine the reasonableness of medical expenses.” Id.

Here, the writer quotes from Gunn, specifically from p. 673, then again from that same case on the same page in the very next sentence.

Notice that Id. is italicized here.

Second situation: same case as immediately preceding sentence, but different page

A party’s silence as to a material term in a contract differs from silence as to an immaterial or non-essential term. Fischer v. CTMI, L.L.C., 479 S.W.3d 231, 240 (Tex. 2016). To be enforceable, “a contract must address all of its essential and material terms with a reasonable degree of certainty and definiteness” Id. at 237.

Here, the writer summarizes material from Fischer, pinpointing that summary to p. 240. Then, the writer quotes from Fischer, but quotes from a different page of that case. So, the writer uses Id. at 237.

Case Citation Move, Type 4: Short Form

Use the short-form citation when you have already cited a case for the first time (remember, the full citation is for the first time only) and now want to go back to it, but you have cited to other legal authorities in between, so you can't use Id. or Id. at in that place.

Example: Short-form citation

The torts of defamation and business disparagement are alike in that “both involve harm from the publication of false information.” Smith v. Jones, 460 S.W.3d 579, 591 (Tex. 2015). [other legal rules and analysis, citations to other legal authorities]

Even though defamation’s main purpose is to provide a remedy for reputational harm (a noneconomic injury), plaintiffs may nevertheless recover economic damages as well. Smith, 460 S.W.3d at 593.

Here, the writer has quoted from, cited, and pinpointed Smith when they used the case for the first time in their document. Then they analyze other legal rules and cite other authorities. But now they want to go back to Smith for the idea that plaintiffs in defamation cases can recover more than one type of damages. Rather than repeat the full citation to Smith, which would be tedious and redundant, the writer uses a short-form citation.

Formula for Short Form: italicized name of first party in case name + italicized v. + comma + volume number + identification of which case reporter the case appears in + pinpoint page where the summarized or quoted material appears + period.

Compare the short-form citation to the first citation. What is the same? What is different? Note that the name of the second party listed in the citation is dropped in a short form.

Case Citation Move, Type 5: Embedded Quote

Case law develops through courts citing other courts, working earlier opinions into the text of newer opinions. Courts often quote other courts, especially when working with earlier cases from that same court or from courts that are higher in the hierarchy. Quotes get used in other quotes and woven into precedent, forming a web that we call something like “the body of case law.”

Here's an example of an embedded quote:

The Fifth Circuit has held that to prove discrimination based on disparate discipline, the plaintiff must usually show “'that the misconduct for which [he] was discharged was nearly identical to that engaged in by a [female] employee whom [the company] retained.'” Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 891 F.2d 1177, 1180 (5th Cir. 1990) (quoting Davin v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 678 F.2d 567, 570 (5th Cir. 1982)). What do you notice in terms of double and single quotation marks and embedded parentheses? Look closely. Why does the writer have to be careful with double and single quotation marks and parentheses here?

Here, the writer is signaling to the reader that the Fifth Circuit (a Federal appellate court) has developed a legal rule about what a particular kind of discrimination plaintiff has to show: that they were fired for the same conduct that an employee of a different gender was not fired for. That rule was first laid out in a 1982 case, Davin. In 1990, the same court used the exact formulation of the rule from Davin by quoting its earlier opinion and making the Davin quote now part of the 1990 opinion in Smith. But since the quoted language is not from the 1990 opinion, but rather was borrowed from the 1982 opinion, the writer is making the origin of the quoted language clear to the reader.

To the law-trained reader, all of that explanation in the preceding paragraph, which took several sentences to unpack, is captured neatly just in the citation form. Thus, citation form has a powerful function of conveying a lot of important information efficiently. You'll soon learn to glean this information by knowing what particular citation forms mean.

Examples of Blended Uses of Case Citations

Legal writers blend their uses of citations, as in these examples:

First use of case with pinpoint

Short form

Id. or Id. at

Embedded quote

Explanatory parenthetical**

Court Opinion

We review both of the orders below de novo. Sanchez v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy, 870 F.3d 1185, 1199 (10th Cir. 2017). We will affirm the district court’s judgment on the pleadings for USAA if we agree that Archuleta fails to “allege ‘a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Id. at 1199 (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009). We will affirm the district court’s summary judgment order for the insurance companies “if, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to” the policyholders, “there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact” and the insurance companies are “entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Peterson v. Martinez, 707 F.3d 1197, 1207 (10th Cir. 2013).

Brief Filed by Attorney

The Dormant Commerce Clause “precludes the application of a state statute to commerce that takes place wholly outside of the State’s borders, whether or not the commerce has effects within the State.” Beer Inst. v. Jones, 491 U.S. 324, 336 (1989). When a state regulates its own commerce, even onerously, its political processes will generally be sufficient to prevent abuse, because local constituents will bear the regulatory burden. See West Lynn Creamery, Inc. v. Healy, 512 U.S. 186, 200 (1994) (noting that “[n]ondiscriminatory measures . . . are generally upheld, in spite of any adverse effects on interstate commerce, in part because ‘the existence of major in-state interests adversely affected . . . is a powerful safeguard against legislative abuse.’”) (quoting Minnesota v. Clover Leaf Creamery Co., 449 U.S. 456, 473 n.17 (1981)). Conversely, when an ostensibly neutral regulation falls predominantly on out-of-state parties, the local political process will not protect those parties to the same degree, and thus courts should treat those regulations with more suspicion. Beer Inst., 491 U.S. at 336. As this Court made clear in West Lynn Creamery, formalistic distinctions and structural contrivances should not obscure “purposes and effects” on commerce. 512 U.S. at 202. The Massachusetts law at issue there was structured as a tax on in-state milk dealers, but the Court found that the tax burden fell almost entirely on out-of-state dairy farmers. Id. at 203. The Court further rejected Massachusetts’s contention that any price increase would be borne only by in-state consumers. Id.

**Explanatory parentheticals should begin with a present participle (-ing) verb such as holding, noting, etc. They can be useful, as Brian Wolfman puts it, to "efficiently explain why a not-right-on-point authority is sufficiently analogous to lend support, where a longer, ordinary-prose explanation might be unnecessary or diversionary." But beware of the "Big Four" types of overreliance on parentheticals, which Wolfman explains in "The Dreaded Parenthetical." Please read that essay.

Citing Statutes

Once you have the hang of citing case law, citing statutes will seem fairly straightforward. What do you notice in these examples?

Statute Citation Move, Type 1: Using Statute for the First Time

Under the Texas Dram Shop Act, providing, selling, or serving an alcoholic beverage may be the basis of a statutory cause of action if “at the time the provision occurred it was apparent to the provider that the individual . . . was obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others.” TEX. ALCO. BEV. CODE ANN. § 2.02(b).

That weird “s”-looking thing is a section symbol: §. If you don’t know where it is on your keyboard, just Google for “section symbol Windows” or “Section Symbol Mac.” Google Docs also has it under Insert>Special Characters.

Statute Citation Move, Type 2: Id. (no Id. at)

Let’s say that you cite a statute, then cite it again in the very next sentence. Easy. Just use your good friend Id.

In addition, “the intoxication of the recipient of the alcoholic beverage” must be “a proximate cause of the damages suffered.” Id.

If you are citing the same statute with no intervening citations, but are now citing a different section or subsection, don't use Id. at as you would with a case. Just use Id. and the new section. See this example:

The act further provides that is "the exclusive cause of action for providing an alcoholic beverage to a person 18 years of age or older."

Id. § 2.03

Here, the writer is still analyzing the Texas Dram Shop Act, but is now working with a new section of the Act (2.03 instead of 2.02).

Statute Citation Move, Type 3: Returning to a Statute After Citing Other Legal Authorities

Let’s say that you cite a statute, then have intervening citations to other legal authorities, so you can’t use Id. See this example:

[Citations to the Texas Dram Shop Act, analysis]

[Citations to other legal authorities, analysis]

[Returning to the Texas Dram Shop Act] Assuming that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s findings that the bar served the truck driver when it was apparent to the tavern’s employees that the driver was intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself or others, see TEX. ALCO. BEV. CODE ANN. § 2.02(b), because it is dispositive, the court must determine whether the evidence was legally insufficient to support the jury’s findings that the bar encouraged its employees to violate the law.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Legal citation will become a lot less mysterious if you focus on these essential ideas:

Everything that you characterize as law has to be cited clearly and precisely to some source of legal authority (in this course, a statute or case).
Citations provide the law-trained reader with crucial information succinctly; thus, the writer must be precise in using citations.
You write a full citation to a legal authority only once per document: the very first time that you cite that authority. After that, it’s Id., Id. at, or a short-form citation.
Always ask: what did I cite in the immediately preceding sentence? Id. and Id. at apply only when the immediately preceding sentence in your document cites the same authority that you want to cite in the very next sentence. If even one citation to another authority intervenes, you need to use the short-form citation before returning to Id. or Id. at (assuming that you are continuing to cite from the same authority in each new sentence).
Most of your citation moves will be of the same kinds, so there is less to keep track of than might appear at first. If you really want to get into the minutiae of citation, you will have opportunities elsewhere (such as law school), but this course will ask you to work with the most common kinds of citation moves.

Reducing Citation Anxiety

Darby Dickerson offers some excellent advice for reducing citation anxiety:

Pro Tip for Leveling Up Your Citations: Focus on the Explanatory or Rhetorical Purpose

Ben Bratman offers good advice for focusing on the reasons you are citing a case instead of interrupting the flow of the sentence with a citation. See his short article:

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bratman-citation-tips.pdf

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