Short Forms
Id., short case names, supra and hereinafter—and the courts that set their own.
A full citation does two jobs: it names the authority, and it points to a passage. Once your reader has the name, a later citation needs to do only the second job. So a short form keeps a handle that leads back to one full citation, plus the locator you rely on now. It drops what the reader already holds: the first page, the court, the year. Here is one full citation and the two short forms that depend on it.
Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369, 412 (2024).
A case short form and the page you rely on now
Loper Bright, 603 U.S. at 412.
- 1 short name: the first party, as the full citation shortened it
- 2 volume, kept
- 3 reporter, kept
- 4 “at” stands where the first page was
- 5 pinpoint: the page you rely on now
Id., the authority cited just before, with its opinion role
Id. at 413 (Thomas, J., concurring).
- 6 Id.: capital, because it opens a citation sentence
- 7 at and the new page
- 8 the opinion role travels with Id.
5.1Reading a short form
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5.2Which short form? Ask in order
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5.3Id.: the authority you just cited
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5.4Short case names: which party, and when one name is not enough
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5.5Supra and hereinafter: secondary sources and long names
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5.6Short forms, source by source
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5.7Court documents and law-review footnotes
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5.8Pointing inside your own document
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5.9When the court sets the short form
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5.10Errors to catch
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