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Bluebook citation generator
Format a Bluebook full citation and short form for a case, statute, article, book or website.
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The Bluebook is the citation system used in US legal writing, from law school memos to court briefs and law review articles. It has its own patterns for cases, statutes, constitutions and secondary sources. Enter the details of your authority and this free Bluebook citation generator formats the full citation and the short form, and lists any element that is still missing.
What Bluebook format is and who uses it
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is compiled by the editors of the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. Law students, lawyers, judges and journal editors in the United States rely on it. It contains two sets of rules. The Bluepages cover court documents and legal memoranda, where citations sit in the text itself and case names are italicized or underlined. The Whitepages cover academic writing, where citations go in footnotes and some elements are set in small caps. This legal citation generator follows the court document and memo style. Many courts also have local citation rules that take priority, so check those too.
Bluebook case citation and other patterns
Case: Party v. Party, volume Reporter first page, pinpoint page (Court Year). Example: Rivera v. Example Corp., 123 F.3d 456, 460 (9th Cir. 1999). Short form: Rivera, 123 F.3d at 460. For a US Supreme Court case cited to the U.S. Reports, the parentheses hold only the year. Federal statute: title number, U.S.C., section symbol and section number, for example 99 U.S.C. § 1234. Constitution: U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1, with no date. Law review article: Jordan A. Rivera, An Example Theory of Notice, 12 J. Example Stud. 45, 50 (2021). Book: Jordan A. Rivera, Example Law Principles 45 (2d ed. 2019). Website: Jordan A. Rivera, Title of Page, Example Site (Mar. 3, 2021), https://www.example.com/page. These examples are made up to show the pattern.
How to use this legal citation generator
Choose the source type, then enter the case name or title and whatever else you have: the reporter, code or journal, the court and year, and the volume, first page, pinpoint page or section. Only the first field is required. The tool formats the details you enter. It does not look anything up, so it cannot confirm that a case exists, that the page numbers are right or that the authority is still good law. Pull every authority yourself before you rely on it. If a needed element is absent, the citation shows a bracketed placeholder such as [court] and the Missing details list explains it. Enter abbreviations the way the Bluebook tables give them; the tool keeps them as typed.
Common Bluebook format mistakes
Writing vs. instead of v. in a case name. Leaving the court out of the parentheses for a lower court case. Omitting the pinpoint page when you rely on a specific passage. Getting the spacing wrong in reporter abbreviations: F.3d has no space, while F. Supp. 2d does. Repeating the full citation where a short form or id. is called for. Using id. when the previous citation contains more than one authority. Italicizing in one place and underlining in another: choose one and keep to it. Applying law review typeface rules to a court brief, or the reverse.
Questions
How do I cite a case in Bluebook format?
Give the case name, the volume number, the reporter abbreviation, the first page of the case, the pinpoint page, and then the court and year in parentheses. For example: Rivera v. Example Corp., 123 F.3d 456, 460 (9th Cir. 1999), which is a made-up case.
What is a pinpoint citation?
It is the exact page where the material you rely on appears. It follows the first page of the case or article, separated by a comma, and in a short form it follows the word at.
When do I use id. and supra?
Id. refers to the immediately preceding authority, when that citation contains only one authority. Supra points back to an earlier full citation of a book, article or similar source. It is not used for cases or statutes, which have their own short forms.
How do I cite a website in Bluebook style?
Give the author if there is one, the title of the page, the name of the website, the date in parentheses and the URL. If the page has no date, use a last visited date in the parentheses instead.
Does the generator check that my case is real?
No. It has no case database and no link lookup. It formats what you type and flags what is missing. Always confirm the authority in the original source.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a formatting aid for students and writers. Check the result against the current Bluebook and any rules of your court, journal or instructor.