APA Formatting and Style (7th ed.)

Government Documents and Legal Materials

Citations for Government Documents

Congresssional Service Reports:

A Congressional Research Service report with an individual author:

• Woolf, Amy F. (2021, December 14). U.S. strategic nuclear forces: Background, development, and issues. (CRS Report No. RL33640). https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL33640. 

A Congressional Research Services report without an individual author:

• Congressional Research Services. (Date). Title. (CRS Report No. RLxxxxx). https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdfRLxxxxx.

Citations for Legal Materials

In Chapter 11, the APA Manual (7th edition) provides examples of citations to legal materials, including cases, statutes, legislative materials, and administrative and executive materials. For more information on writing legal citations, consult The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st edition).  

Case (Court Decision). Reference form: Name v. Name, Volume Reporter First Page (year). 

• Reference page citation example: Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/543/03-633/index.pdf 
  
  (Note: You may include the URL from which you retrieved the case information after the year. This is not strictly required for legal citations, but may aid readers in retrieval.)

• In-text citation example: Roper v. Simmons (2005) or (Roper v. Simmons, 2005)

Statute. Reference form: Name of Act, Volume Code abbrev. § Section number (1987).

• Reference page citation example: Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, 43 U.S.C. §§2101-2106 (1987). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/43/chapter-39
  
  (Note: You may include the URL from which you retrieved the statute after the year. This is not strictly required for legal citations, but may aid readers in retrieval.)

• In-text citation example: Abandoned Shipwreck Act (1987) or (Abandoned Shipwreck Act, 1987)

Federal Regulation. Reference form: Title/Number, Volume C.F.R. §xxx (year).

• Reference page citation example: Truth in Lending (Regulation Z) Finance Charge, 12 C.F.R. §226.4
  (2010).  https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/12/part-226/subpart-A
  
  (If the regulation is available online, provide the URL.)

• In-text citation example:  Truth in Lending (Regulation Z) Finance Charge (2010) or (Truth in Lending [Regulation Z] Finance Charge, 2010)