How do you cite the U.S. Constitution?

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The main idea here is using the standard Bluebook-style citation for a constitutional provision. When you cite the U.S. Constitution, you abbreviate the source as U.S. Const., then indicate the exact part with art. for article, a roman numeral for the article number, the section symbol § for the section, and cl. for the clause number, with commas separating each piece. So the precise citation for the Commerce Clause is U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 3. This format is concise, unambiguous, and widely used in legal writing.

The other formats fall short because they don’t match the conventional abbreviations and symbols: spelling out "Constitution" or capitalizing "Art." deviates from the standard; using a different shorthand like "Sec." or writing "Clause" in full changes the citation style; and citing the wrong article or the wrong clause would direct to a different provision entirely.