Cite Government and Legal Documents: Chicago Author-Date

In-text or Footnote?

Legal publications use notes for documentation and therefore citations for most government or legal documents do not need to be included in bibliographies.

• If you are citing only a few legal or government documents, just cite through the text, including the same information as footnotes. 
• If you have more than a few legal or gov docs citations, use footnotes.
• Examples that give the note form only need not be included in the reference list.

Congressional Hearings

Footnote

Title of Hearing, Congress session (Year) (statement of Witness Name, Title).

Homeland Security Act of 2002: Hearings on H.R. 5005, Day 3, Before the Select Comm. on Homeland Security, 107th Cong. 203 (2002) (statement of David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States).

Congressional Record

Footnote

If citing the daily edition, replace Year with "daily ed." and full date. If needed, the identity of the speaker may be included in parentheses. 

Session # Cong. Rec. Cited page (year or daily ed. date) (statement of Sen. or Rep. Last name).

156 Cong. Rec. 4133 (2010)

156 Cong. Rec. H1819 (daily ed. March 21, 2010) (statement of Rep. Wilson).

Federal or State Statute

Footnote

Name of Act, Public Law No. (Year).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Publ. L. No. 111-148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010). 

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Pub. L. No. 104-191, § 264, 110 Stat.1936.

Government Doc, Organizational Author

• You don't need to include the publisher name if the same as the organizational author.
• If the document is in print, leave off the URL. Do not use URLs from library databases.

Reference List

Name of Government Body. Division. Year. Publication Title. Document number. Place of Publication: Publisher. URL.

U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Northeast Region. 2004. Schoodic: Draft General Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement. Maine. http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo67000.

U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2019. Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2019. GAO-20-1SP. Washington D.C. https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/702715.pdf.

U.S. Congress. House. Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 2011. Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. 112th Cong., 2d sess., H. Rep.112-445. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg50208/html/CHRG-111hhrg50208.htm.

In-text citation

(U.S. Government Accountability Office 2019)

U.S. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943. Washington, DC: GPO, 1965. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1943v03.

Government Doc, Personal Author

You don't need to include the publisher name if the same as the organizational author.

Reference List

Organization Name. Year. Title of Publication. by Author(s) First-name Last-name. Publication/Report Number. Place of Publication: Publisher. URL.

U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. 2005. 9/11 Commission Report: The Official Report of the 9/11 Commission and Related Publications. by Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton. Washington, D.C.: GPO. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html

U.S. Department of the Interior. U.S. Geological Survey. 2013. Assessment of Coal Geology, Resources, and Reserves in the Montana Powder River Basin, by Jon E. Haacke, David C. Scott, Lee M. Osmonson, James A. Luppens, Paul E. Pierce, and Jay A. Gunderson. Open-file report 2012- 1113. Reston, Virginia. http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1113/OF12-1113.pdf.

In-text Citation

(U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks 2019)

Treaty

Footnote

“Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” opened for signature November 4, 1950, European Treaty Series no. 5, https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/005.

U.S. Constitution

Footnote

U.S. Constitution, art. 1, sec. 8, cl. 3.

U.S. Constitution, amend. 15, sec. 1.

U.S. Supreme Court Case

Footnote

Name v. Name, Volume # U.S. Page # (Year).

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969).

Find the Case Citation

Volume # U.S. Page # is the official citation. See the image below for locating that number in Westlaw Campus. You can also find these on the right side of the Wikipedia article.