How do you cite federal statutes using the U.S. Code?

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Multiple Choice

How do you cite federal statutes using the U.S. Code?

Citations to federal statutes in the United States Code should present the title number with the U.S.C. label, the statute section, and the year, and, when you’re signaling that the text is codified in the U.S. Code, you add the phrase in U.S.C. after the year. The form 15 U.S.C. § 45 (2020) in U.S.C. does exactly that: it shows the title 15 of the United States Code, the specific section 45, the edition year (2020), and then explicitly notes that this is the codified form in the United States Code. This aligns with the convention of identifying the codified source rather than the original session laws, and it keeps the order clean and unambiguous. The other presented formats put the code designation in the wrong place or omit the note that it’s in the U.S. Code, which makes them less standard. For example, putting U.S.C. before the title or rearranging the elements distracts from the conventional sequence used in Bluebook-style statutory citations.

Citations to federal statutes in the United States Code should present the title number with the U.S.C. label, the statute section, and the year, and, when you’re signaling that the text is codified in the U.S. Code, you add the phrase in U.S.C. after the year. The form 15 U.S.C. § 45 (2020) in U.S.C. does exactly that: it shows the title 15 of the United States Code, the specific section 45, the edition year (2020), and then explicitly notes that this is the codified form in the United States Code. This aligns with the convention of identifying the codified source rather than the original session laws, and it keeps the order clean and unambiguous.

The other presented formats put the code designation in the wrong place or omit the note that it’s in the U.S. Code, which makes them less standard. For example, putting U.S.C. before the title or rearranging the elements distracts from the conventional sequence used in Bluebook-style statutory citations.

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