PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Executive order

How to Cite an Executive Order in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for an executive order starts with United States, Executive Office of the President, and the president's name in square brackets. Then come Executive Order, the number, a colon, and the order's title in plain type, then the date it was signed, then the Federal Register in italics with vol., no., the date of the issue, the pages, and the URL. The in-text citation is the author and the order: (United States, Executive Order 14401).

The format

United States, Executive Office of the President [President's Name]. Executive Order Number: Title of the Order. Day Mon. Year signed. Federal Register, vol. #, no. #, Day Mon. Year, pp. #–#, URL.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 30, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

In PERRLA, choose Executive Orders (under Legal References), then An executive order or A presidential proclamation. Add the president in President, type the Order Title and the number, and for Where is this work published? pick Only in the Federal Register. Then fill in the Federal Register Volume, the Federal Register Issue Number (77), and the Federal Register Issue Date, the date at the top of the issue's pages, and in Federal Register Page Number, the full page range, like 21709-21711. MLA gives every page the order fills.

Add the Date signed and the URL. PERRLA starts the entry with United States, Executive Office of the President, puts the president in brackets, and adds the colon between the number and the title.

Have the order's citation from your reading, like Exec. Order No. 14401, 91 Fed. Reg. 21709 (Apr. 18, 2026)? Paste it into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA recognizes it as an executive order and fills in the number, the volume, the first page, and the date signed. MLA also needs the president, the title, the issue number and issue date, and the full page range, so add those before you save. Paste the citation, not the order's federalregister.gov link: the link builds a webpage reference instead.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Author: the president's office

The author is the office that issues the order, with the government first: United States, Executive Office of the President. Add the president's name in square brackets right after it, so your reader knows whose order it is, then a period.

United States, Executive Office of the President [Donald Trump].

Write the name the way the Federal Register lists it, first name first. Proclamations take the same author.

2. Number and title

Next comes Executive Order and the number, a colon, and the order's title. Capitalize it like a title, but don't italicize it or put it in quotation marks: MLA sets the names of laws and similar documents in plain type. MLA writes the number without a comma.

Executive Order 14401: Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness.

A proclamation works the same way: Proclamation 10863: National Rural Health Day, 2024.

3. Date signed

After the title, give the date the president signed the order, as its own element, followed by a period. The order's first page prints it under the number: "Executive Order 14401 of April 18, 2026."

18 Apr. 2026.

Write it day, month, year, with every month but May, June, and July abbreviated.

4. Federal Register

Orders are printed in the Federal Register a few days after signing. It's the container, so its name goes in italics, then vol., no., the date of that day's issue, and pp. with the pages the order fills.

Federal Register, vol. 91, no. 77, 22 Apr. 2026, pp. 21709–11,

The issue number and date are printed at the top of every page of the issue ("Federal Register / Vol. 91, No. 77 / Wednesday, April 22, 2026"). The issue date is usually a few days after the date signed, so the entry has two dates.

5. URL

End with the URL of the copy you read, without https://, and a period. MLA's own examples link the Federal Register PDF on GovInfo; the order's federalregister.gov page works too.

www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-04-22/pdf/2026-07907.pdf.

Examples

An executive order in the Federal Register

Executive Order 14401, on accelerating medical treatments for serious mental illness, was signed April 18, 2026, and printed in the Federal Register on April 22 (volume 91, issue 77), on pages 21709 to 21711. This example quotes page 21710.

  • In-text citation(United States, Executive Order 14401 21710)
  • Narrative citationIn Executive Order 14401, the Executive Office of the President directs … (21710).

A presidential proclamation

Proclamation 10863, signed November 20, 2024, proclaimed National Rural Health Day. It was printed in the Federal Register on November 29, 2024 (volume 89, issue 230), on pages 94595 to 94597. Proclamations follow the executive order format with the word Proclamation in place of Executive Order.

  • In-text citation(United States, Proclamation 10863)
  • Narrative citationIn Proclamation 10863, the Executive Office of the President recognized …

An executive order that amends an earlier one

Executive Order 14047, signed September 17, 2021, added measles to the federal list of quarantinable communicable diseases, the list Executive Order 13295 set in 2003 and a staple of public health and infection control papers. It was printed in the Federal Register on September 22, 2021 (volume 86, issue 181), on pages 52591 and 52592. An order that changes an earlier one gets its own entry, with its own number, title, and dates.

  • In-text citation(United States, Executive Order 14047)
  • Narrative citationIn Executive Order 14047, the Executive Office of the President adds …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation uses the first words of the Works Cited entry. Every executive order starts with the same author, so add the order's label and number to show which one you mean, the way MLA's own examples do.

  • Parenthetical: (United States, Executive Order 14401)
  • A proclamation: (United States, Proclamation 10863)
  • Order named in your sentence: the parenthetical needs only what's left, like the page of a quotation: In Executive Order 14401, the Executive Office of the President directs … (21710).
  • Nothing left to add: name the order in your sentence and leave the parentheses off: Executive Order 14047 added measles to the list of quarantinable diseases.

Don't cite the order under the president's name, like (Trump). The entry starts with United States, so that's what your reader looks for on your Works Cited page.

Common mistakes

  • Exec. Order No. 14,401, 91 Fed. Reg. 21709 (Apr. 18, 2026).United States, Executive Office of the President [Donald Trump]. Executive Order 14401: Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness. 18 Apr. 2026. Federal Register, vol. 91, no. 77, 22 Apr. 2026, pp. 21709–11.That's the legal form APA and Turabian follow. MLA uses its own template: the author, the number and title, the date signed, and the Federal Register as the container.
  • Trump, Donald. Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness.United States, Executive Office of the President [Donald Trump]. Executive Order 14401: Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness.The office that issues the order is the author, and the president goes in brackets after it. The title is in plain type, after the order's number.
  • Federal Register, vol. 91, 18 Apr. 2026, p. 21709.18 Apr. 2026. Federal Register, vol. 91, no. 77, 22 Apr. 2026, pp. 21709–11.The date signed stands on its own after the title. The Federal Register takes its own issue number and date, and the full page range.
  • (Trump)(United States, Executive Order 14401)The in-text citation has to match the start of the Works Cited entry, which is United States. Add the order's number so your reader can tell your orders apart.

Quick checklist

  • United States, Executive Office of the President, and the president in brackets
  • Executive Order or Proclamation, the number, a colon, and the title in plain type
  • The date signed as its own element
  • Federal Register in italics, then vol., no., the issue date, and pp.
  • The URL without https://, ending with a period
  • In text: (United States, Executive Order and the number)

Questions students ask

Why does an MLA entry for an executive order have two dates?

The first is the date the president signed the order, which belongs to the order itself. The second is the date of the Federal Register issue that printed it, usually a few days later, which belongs to the container. MLA's own executive order examples give both.

Which copy of an executive order should I cite?

The Federal Register. Every order is printed there a few days after signing, that printing is the official text, and MLA's own executive order examples cite it. GovInfo has every issue of the Federal Register back to the first one in 1936, so you can find the copy for almost any order you read about.

Where do I find the issue number?

It's at the top of every page of the Federal Register, after the volume: "Vol. 91, No. 77." GovInfo's text version of the order starts with it too: Federal Register Volume 91, Number 77.

Can I cite an executive order from the White House website?

If that's what you read, yes: cite it as a page on a website, with the title of the order, The White House as the website, the date posted, and the URL. Once the order is printed in the Federal Register, a few days after signing, that copy is the official one and the better source to cite.

How do I cite an executive order that was revoked or amended?

Cite the order itself and say in your sentence that it was later revoked or changed. If your point depends on the change, cite the later order too, in an entry of its own. For example, Executive Order 13166 (2000) on language access was revoked in 2025 by Executive Order 14224.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and government authors) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's How Do I Cite an Executive Order by a US President? (June 2025: the author with the president in brackets, Executive Order and the number with the title, the date signed, the Federal Register with vol., no., date, and pages, and the in-text form (United States, Executive Order 14264)) and Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style (names of laws and similar documents in plain type). Example sources verified on GovInfo: the Federal Register text and PDF of Executive Order 14401 (vol. 91, no. 77, 22 Apr. 2026, pp. 21709–11, signed 18 Apr. 2026), Proclamation 10863 (vol. 89, no. 230, 29 Nov. 2024, pp. 94595–97, signed 20 Nov. 2024), and Executive Order 14047 (vol. 86, no. 181, 22 Sept. 2021, pp. 52591–92, signed 17 Sept. 2021); signing dates, page ranges, and president names also checked in the Federal Register API.

PERRLA builds the executive order entry for you, with the president, the number, and the Federal Register details in place.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days