U.S. Supreme Court Cases MLA FORMAT DOC 2: JUSTICE
USING THE MLA FORMAT TO CITE SUPREME COURT DOCUMENTS
Parenthetical citations in the body of the paper
When citing a Supreme Court case parenthetically (in-text) or referring to it in the body of your essay, underline or italicize the case name. Here are several ways to do this.
1. For example, you can name the full case in the body of the sentence:
“The Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder explicitly signals the ...” (110).
(Note: only the page number is required in the citation if you name the court case in the sentence. Also, the page in parentheses refers to the pages in the DOC 2 Reader where the case can be found.)
2. Or, if you do not write the court case in the sentence, you must use the full title in the parenthetical citation:
“The Court’s decision to strike down an important provision in the Voting Rights Act complicates this argument” (Shelby County v. Holder 110).
3. After the first mention of the case name in your paper, you can use a shortened version for the remainder of the paper. For example:
“While the majority opinion in Shelby affirms ...” (109). or “... directly relates to the argument for natural rights” (Shelby 109).
Court Cases on the Works Cited Page
To list a Supreme Court case on your Works Cited page, use the following format:
[Plaintiff] v. [Defendant]. [U.S. Reports Citation]. [Original Page Numbers, if Available].
[Name of the Court]. [Year of the