PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/U.S. Supreme Court case

How to Cite a Supreme Court Case in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a U.S. Supreme Court case starts with the Court as a government author, United States, Supreme Court, then gives the case name in italics, United States Reports in italics, vol. and the volume number, the year of the decision, and pp. and the pages the case fills. If you read it online, add the website in italics and the URL. The in-text citation names the Court and the page: (United States, Supreme Court 495).

The format

United States, Supreme Court. Name v. Name. United States Reports, vol. #, Year, pp. #–#. Website Name, www.url.com.

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

Already have the case citation from your reading, like Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)? Paste it into PERRLA's reference search. PERRLA recognizes it as a Supreme Court case and fills in the case name, the volume, the first page, and the year. When it finds the case on CourtListener, a free case-law site, it adds a link to the opinion too. If you read the case somewhere else, delete that link before you save. The legal citation has no last page, so add it in Case Ending Page Number, and check the case name and the year against the opinion.

Adding one by hand? Choose US Federal Court Cases (under Legal References), then Supreme Court case. Leave Where was the case published? on United States Reports (U.S.), then fill in the Case Name, the volume, the Case Starting Page Number, the Case Ending Page Number, and the Year. Read the opinion online? Add the URL (Web address) and the site's name in Website Name, like Library of Congress. PERRLA starts the entry with United States, Supreme Court, italicizes the case name, United States Reports, and the website, adds vol. and pp. for you, and shortens the page range the MLA way (pp. 113–78). PERRLA's MLA form notes that this type is for the official, published version of a case, the one in the United States Reports.

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 Court

MLA treats the Court as the author, the same way it treats any government body: the government first, a comma, and then the branch that wrote the work. End with a period.

United States, Supreme Court.

Don't list the justice who wrote the majority opinion. The Court decides the case, so the Court is the author. (If you cite only a dissent, the dissenting justice can be the author instead.)

2. Case name

Give the case name in italics, v. included, followed by a period. MLA italicizes case names everywhere: in the Works Cited entry, in your sentences, and in parentheses.

Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health.

Use the short name, not the full caption from the first page of the opinion. Keep the first party on each side, give a person's surname only, and drop et al. The Court's caption for that case reads "Cruzan, by her parents and co-guardians, Cruzan et ux. v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, et al." Write v. every time, even if your source prints vs.

3. United States Reports and volume

The United States Reports is the Court's official record of its decisions, and it's the container for the case. Its name goes in italics, followed by a comma, then vol. and the volume number.

United States Reports, vol. 410,

Legal writing packs this into "410 U.S. 113," where 410 is the volume and 113 is the first page. MLA spells the parts out instead.

4. Year

Give the year the Court decided the case, then a comma. The decision date is the only date you need. The full date, day first, is fine too if you want it: 22 Jan. 1973.

1973,

Use the year of the decision, not the year the case was argued. Roe v. Wade was argued in 1971 and again in 1972, but it was decided on 22 January 1973.

5. Pages

Write pp. and the pages the case fills in the volume, from the first page to the last, then a period. Past 99, the second number keeps only its last two digits, unless more are needed to make the range clear.

pp. 113–78.

The legal citation gives only the first page (113). For MLA, find the last page too: it's the last page of the final opinion in the case, often a dissent. The Library of Congress's PDF of a case, cut from the United States Reports, shows the whole range.

6. Website and URL

Read the case online? MLA wants the version you actually used. If the site gives you the case as printed in the United States Reports, like the Library of Congress's PDFs or the bound volumes on the Court's own website, the United States Reports stays the first container and the site is a second one: its name in italics, a comma, and the URL without https://, then a period.

Library of Congress, tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep347/usrep347483/usrep347483.pdf.

Read it as a web page, on a site like Cornell's Legal Information Institute? MLA's own example makes the site the only container, with the decision date after the case name: United States, Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education. 17 May 1954. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/347/483.

Examples

A landmark case: Roe v. Wade

The 1973 abortion rights decision, still cited constantly in health policy, ethics, and nursing courses. It begins on page 113 of volume 410, and the last dissent ends on page 178.

  • In-text citation(United States, Supreme Court)
  • Narrative citationIn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court held that …

The case that overruled it: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

The 2022 decision that overruled Roe v. Wade. Its entry has the same parts as any other Supreme Court case. The opinions run from page 215 to page 423 of volume 597.

  • In-text citation(United States, Supreme Court)
  • Narrative citationIn Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade …

A case with a long caption: Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health

The 1990 right-to-refuse-treatment case behind advance directives, a staple of nursing ethics courses. The opinion's caption names Nancy Cruzan's parents as co-guardians, but the entry uses the short case name. It runs from page 261 to page 357.

  • In-text citation(United States, Supreme Court)
  • Narrative citationIn Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, the Supreme Court ruled that …

Quoting a case you read online: Brown v. Board of Education

The 1954 school desegregation decision, the case education students cite most, read in the Library of Congress's copy of the United States Reports, so the Library of Congress is the website. The line "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" is on page 495, so the in-text citation adds that page. The case fills pages 483 to 496.

  • In-text citation(United States, Supreme Court 495)
  • Narrative citationIn Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court concluded that "[s]eparate educational facilities are inherently unequal" (495).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation points to the first words of the Works Cited entry, so for a Supreme Court case it names the Court, not the case. Add the page when you quote or point to a specific passage, with no comma before it.

  • Parenthetical: (United States, Supreme Court)
  • With a page: (United States, Supreme Court 495)
  • More than one Supreme Court case in your paper: every entry starts the same way, so add a short form of the case name in italics: (United States, Supreme Court, Brown 495). Shorten a case name to the first party that isn't a government: Roe, Dobbs, Cruzan.
  • Court and case in your sentence: the smoothest choice, and it leaves only the page for the parentheses: In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court concluded that "[s]eparate educational facilities are inherently unequal" (495).

After you've named a case once, you can call it by its short form in your sentences, like Roe or the Cruzan decision. Keep the italics.

Common mistakes

  • Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).United States, Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade. United States Reports, vol. 410, 1973, pp. 113–78.That's the legal citation, the form APA uses. MLA follows its own template: the Court as author, the case name in italics, and the volume, year, and pages spelled out.
  • United States, Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade.United States, Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade.MLA italicizes case names in the Works Cited entry too, not only in your sentences.
  • United States Reports, vol. 410, 1973, p. 113.United States Reports, vol. 410, 1973, pp. 113–78.The legal citation gives only the first page, but MLA gives the pages the whole case fills. p. 113 tells your reader the case is one page long.
  • (Roe v. Wade, 1973)(United States, Supreme Court)That's APA. An MLA in-text citation starts with the first words of the Works Cited entry, which is the Court, and it never takes the year.
  • (Wade 153)(United States, Supreme Court 153)The second party isn't an author. Generators that treat Wade as the author point to an entry that isn't on your Works Cited page.
  • Blackmun, Harry. Roe v. Wade.United States, Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade.The justice who wrote the majority opinion wrote it for the Court, so the Court is the author. Name a justice only when you cite that justice's dissent on its own.

Quick checklist

  • United States, Supreme Court as the author
  • Short case name in italics, with v.
  • United States Reports in italics, then vol. and the volume
  • The year of the decision
  • pp. and the pages the whole case fills, not just the first page
  • Website in italics and the URL, if you read it online
  • In text: (United States, Supreme Court), plus the page if you have one

Questions students ask

Do I italicize Supreme Court case names in MLA?

Yes, everywhere: in your sentences, in your in-text citations, and in the Works Cited entry. MLA italicizes the whole name, v. included. Names of laws and acts are different: those stay in plain type.

Is the author of a Supreme Court case the justice who wrote the opinion?

No. The majority opinion speaks for the Court, so the author is United States, Supreme Court. The one exception: if you cite only a dissent, you can list the dissenting justice as the author and add the words Dissenting opinion before the case name.

Where do I find the page range for a Supreme Court case?

The Library of Congress posts PDFs of cases cut from the United States Reports, and each one shows the case's first and last page. For newer cases, the Supreme Court's website has preliminary prints, whose covers list the pages. The last page of the case is the end of its final opinion, which is often a dissent.

How do I cite a Supreme Court case I read on Cornell's Legal Information Institute or Justia?

Cite the version you read. When you read the case as a web page, MLA's own example makes the website the container and puts the decision date after the case name: United States, Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education. 17 May 1954. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/347/483. Your in-text citation stays the same: (United States, Supreme Court).

How do I cite a brand-new Supreme Court case that isn't in the United States Reports yet?

Cite the slip opinion you read on the Court's website, with the date of the decision: United States, Supreme Court. Case Name. Day Month Year. Supreme Court of the United States, www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/…. Once the case has its pages in the United States Reports, you can cite that version instead.

How do I cite Roe v. Wade now that it's been overturned?

The same way as before: it's still a 1973 decision in volume 410 of the United States Reports. MLA's template has no slot for later history, so say it in your sentence and cite both cases: Roe v. Wade was overruled in 2022 by Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

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 post Documenting Legal Works in MLA Style (follow the MLA template for court cases; cite the version you consulted; italicize case names; short names from the first party on each side; short forms from the first nongovernmental party; and its Brown v. Board of Education examples for the Legal Information Institute and the Library of Congress). Example sources verified in the Library of Congress's United States Reports PDFs (410 U.S. 113–78, decided 22 Jan. 1973; 347 U.S. 483–96, decided 17 May 1954, with the quoted line on page 495; 497 U.S. 261–357, decided 25 June 1990) and the Supreme Court's preliminary print of 597 U.S. 215–423 (decided 24 June 2022).

PERRLA turns a pasted Supreme Court citation into an MLA entry with the Court as author and the case name in italics.

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