Citations; manner of citation; titles of cases.

• Jurisdiction: United States

Section 72. Citations; manner of citation; titles of cases.—Very frequently the title of a case is extremely long as it appears at the beginning of the report. Thus, a recent Supreme Court case bears the title United New York and New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots Association et al. v. Halecki, Administratrix.⁵¹ How much of the foregoing should go into the brief?

One way is to start with the name of the case as it appears at the beginning of the opinion in the official report, and then to hack away at it to reduce that name to more manageable proportions. Another system is to cite the case as it appears in the running head, i.e., the line on the top of the right-hand page of the report above the opinion, and to expand only if necessary.

The latter method—which I will call the running head rule of thumb—is used by the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court. It is also used by the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. Apart from the weight of that combined authority, it results in the convenience of short case titles, since the U. S. Reports are published in octavo volumes whose pages are small enough to insure a short running head as the case title. It is therefore the preferable method on every ground. Accordingly, in the instance set out above, where the running head in the official reports is United Pilots Assn. v. Halecki, the case will be thus cited.

Here are some necessary qualifications to the running head rule of thumb:

(a) Where the first word of either party's name is abbreviated in the running head, it will normally be spelled out in the citation.

Thus, the case of International Harvester Credit Corp. et al. v. Goodrich et al., Constituting the State Tax Commission of New York⁵² has the running head Int. Harvester Corp. v. Goodrich. The first word of appellant's name is abbreviated, hence the case would be cited in a brief as International Harvester Corp. v. Goodrich. Similarly, U. S. Gypsum Co. v. Nat. Gypsum Co.⁵³ in the running head becomes United States Gypsum Co. v. National Gypsum Co. in the brief, while Pan-Atlantic Corp. v. Atl. Coast Line⁵⁴ in the running head is written as Pan-Atlantic Corp. v. Atlantic Coast Line in the brief.

(b) Very frequently one of the parties is an agency sufficiently well known so that it can be unmistakably identified by its initials, which accordingly are simply abbreviated in the running head. E.g., United States v. I.C.C.,⁵⁵ S.E.C. v. Louisiana Pub. Serv. Comm'n.,⁵⁶ F.T.C. v. National Casualty Co.⁵⁷ The official reports in such instances apply qualification (a), above, and spell out the name of the agency in later citations—Interstate Commerce Comm., Securities & Exch. Comm., Federal Trade Comm. In cases involving the National Labor Relations Board, the consistent running head rendering has been Labor Board—e.g., Labor Board v. Steelworkers.⁵⁸ There the basic rule of thumb disposes of the question of how to cite.

While a variant form of citation, with initials alone not set off by periods—ICC, SEC, FTC, NLRB—cannot fairly be considered plainly wrong, the lawyer writing briefs for Federal courts will undoubtedly do better to follow the style book of the U. S. Reports.

(c) Where one of the parties is an organization similarly known by initials, the practice appears to vary. Thus, United States v. C.I.O.⁵⁹ and N.A.A.C.P. v. Alabama⁶⁰ are cited just as they appear in the running head, initials, periods, and all. On the other hand, A.F. of L. v. Watson⁶¹ has later been cited, on consecutive pages, both as American Federation of Labor v. Watson and as A.F. of L. v. Watson.⁶² In this instance, you pays your money and you takes your choice—just try to be consistent, at least in the same brief.

But, while you may expand a Supreme Court running head abbreviation, don't abbreviate it simply for the sake of abbreviating. Thus, whether you agree or disagree with the Segregation Cases, their citation will read more smoothly as Brown v. Board of...