Tips from BLSA’s Research Review Sessions

Recently, the Black Law Student Association (BLSA) hosted two research review sessions that were open to all C|M|Law students. One session was a review of federal legal research and the other covered legal citations. In case you missed the sessions, here are a couple tips –

• If you’re citing to a case that appears in the Federal Supplement, abbreviated F. Supp. in the Bluebook, don’t forget to add court information in the parens. So Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co., 348 F. Supp. 954 (1972) would be WRONG because you can’t tell which court the case was in. Jackson v. Metro Edison Co., 348 F. Supp. 954 (M.D. Pa. 1972) would be CORRECT, since you can tell that the case was from the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
• Conversely, if you’re citing to a case in United States Reports, abbreviated U.S. in the Bluebook, you NEVER need anything more than just the date in the parens, because it is clear that only cases from the U.S. Supreme Court are reported in the United States Reports. So Terry v. Ohio 392 U.S. 1 (1968) is CORRECT without anything more than the date in the parens.
• The Federal Appendix publishes the opinions of the U.S. courts of appeals that have not been selected for publication. So it’s a reporter for unreported cases. The Bluebook abbreviation is F. App’x. (And yes, you’d need to indicate the court in the parens – just the date won’t cut it).