State Constitutions
Federal Government | State Government | ||
Executive Branch | administrative regulations | Executive Branch | administrative regulations |
Legislative Branch | statutes | Legislative Branch | statutes |
Judicial Branch | court opinions; cases; common law | Judicial Branch | court opinions; cases; common law |
U.S. Supreme Court U.S. Court of Appeals (Circuit Courts) U.S. District Courts (trial court) |
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Supreme Court Intermediate appellate court Trial courts |
United States Supreme Court | |
Court | Abbreviation |
United States Supreme Court | U.S. |
United States Court of Appeals | |
Court | Abbreviation |
First Circuit | 1st Cir. |
Second Circuit | 2d Cir. |
Third Circuit | 3d Cir. |
Fourth Circuit | 4th Cir. |
Fifth Circuit | 5th Cir. |
Sixth Circuit | 6th Cir. |
Seventh Circuit | 7th Cir. |
Eighth Circuit | 8th Cir. |
Ninth Circuit | 9th Cir. |
Tenth Circuit | 10th Cir. |
Eleventh Circuit | 11th Cir. |
D.C. Circuit | D.C. Cir. |
Federal Circuit | Fed. Cir. |
United States District Courts | |
Court | Abbreviations |
District of Arizona | D. Ariz. |
Court opinions are gathered together and published in chronological order in print in volumes called Case Reporters. Even though most cases are now available online, cases are still organized and cited to according to the print reporter system.
Case reporters can be official or unofficial. However, the text of the cases within the reporters are still considered primary sources (apart from any editorial additions in unofficial reporters such as headnotes), regardless of the cases' publication within an official or unofficial reporter.
Example of a headnote:
Reporters frequently have multiple series, which simply means the publisher re-started the volume numbering over again.
For example, the Pacific Reporter Second Series (P.2d) contains volumes 1 through 999; the Pacific Reporter Third Series (N.E.3d) starts over again with volume 1. Cases are not reprinted from one series to the next; each subsequent series contains all new cases.
Federal Reporters
United States Supreme Court:
United States Court of Appeals:
United States District Courts:
In the case above, Am. Geophysical Union and Texaco, Inc. are the parties in the case. The case is located in volume 60 of the Federal Reporter, third series, beginning on page 913. The case was decided in 1994 by Second Circuit (US Court of Appeals).
Cases are published in reporters. A case citation is generally made up of the following parts: