Supreme Court Decisions

• To correctly cite a U.S. Supreme Court decision, both the names of the defendant and the prosecution must be known. This is cited as Name v. Name. An example of this is Roe v. Wade. After the name of the case comes a period, followed by the volume number, the letters "U.S." and the page number. This is followed by another period. The date in parentheses comes after the page number, and a period is placed outside of the parentheses. The following is an example: United States v. Carson, 535 U.S. 321 (1975).
  
  

Lower Federal Court Decisions

• For decisions made by federal courts lower than the U.S. Supreme Court, a varying format is used. The name of the case comes first, just as it does for Supreme Court decisions, with the name of the defendant, the letter "v" with a period and then the name of the prosecution. The case name is followed by a comma, then the volume number, the abbreviation of the Reporter and the page number, none of which is separated by punctuation. Next is the court name in parentheses, with a period outside of the parentheses. The following is an example: Matthews v. Harbor House, Inc., 121 F. 4d 22 (1st Cir. 1989).
  
  

Federal Statutes

• Citing federal statutes in APA format begins with the name of the act and the section symbol and section number if applicable. This is followed by a comma, the volume number and the letters "U.S.C." if dealing with a U.S. Code. This is followed by the statute's year in parentheses and a period. (If dealing with the Statutes at Large, the letters "Stat." are placed directly after the volume number.) The citation ends with the page number and a period. The following is an example: National Disabilities Act of 1959 § 201, 32 U.S.C. § 2122 (1999).
  
  

State and U.S. Constitutions

• When citing portions of the U.S. Constitution or a state constitution, the abbreviated name of the constitution is written first. This is followed directly by the letters "pt." and the part number, if applicable. A comma is added, followed by the letters "art." or "amend." then the article or amendment numbers in Roman numerals and a comma. The citation is completed by the symbol for section, the section number and a period. The following is an example: Mass. Const. pt. 3, art. VI. or Mass. Const., amend. VII, § 1.