Template:Ussc/doc

Description
This template is used to cite the United States Reports, which are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceeding of the Supreme Court of the United States. This template provides the citation number, date, and a clickable link to look up the cited case opinion on an external site. It can also be used to pin citations to a specific page within an opinion. For older cases (before reporting was standardized to the US Reports in 1875), the citation can be directed to the specific reporter; the newest cases may be referenced using the docket number instead.

Mandatory fields
Note: the following three fields are positional, and must appear in the order listed.
 * volume
 * The first number of a given case citation, referring to the volume in which the case is found.


 * page
 * The second number within the citation, referring to the page in the volume on which the case syllabus begins.


 * year
 * Indicates the year in which the case decision was announced.

When coding a Supreme Court case citation, this template is usually used after the italicized wikilink to the case name. This makes the court case number a clickable external link, allowing someone to read the actual case.


 * Example #1
 * While the Canadian case of R. v. Morgentaler, [1993] 3 S.C.R. 463, is considered equivalent to the U.S. case of Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), it is usually considered closer to Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 (1973).

You would code it as follows:

which will display as:
 * While the Canadian case of R. v. Morgentaler, [1993] 3 S.C.R. 463, is considered equivalent to the U.S. case of Roe v. Wade,, it is usually considered closer to Doe v. Bolton,.

Optional: Select the court reporter
Note: reporter and reporter-volume, when used, must both appear, and must be the 4th and 5th fields, respectively.
 * reporter
 * Denotes the last name of the reporter publishing the Supreme Court's opinions. This citation system was used before the United States Reports were commenced. The United States included the volumes of the named reporters in the United States Reports, numbering them sequentially; thus, the actual first volume of the United States Reports was Volume 91. If you use this field, use of the reporter-volume field is mandatory.


 * reporter-volume
 * Denotes the volume of the named reporter. If you use this field, use of the reporter field is mandatory.


 * Example #2 – Reporter

is displayed as:
 * Marbury v. Madison.

Other options

 * source
 * Allows the wiki-editor to direct a reader to the text of any opinion posted to the web. See details below. If using this option, place it first within with template parameters.
 * casename
 * A sub-optional field, used only when pointing readers to the case opinion posted to Wikisource. Enter the name of the case, as entitled on Wikisource.


 * pin
 * This is the pincite/pinpoint feature. Use it to denote the exact page on which cited text may be found.


 * docketxx-xxx
 * used for newer cases which haven't yet been assigned volume and page numbers. Note: When using the docket #, the volume and page are omitted – the year, then, being a positional variable, is instead supplied using the "3year" syntax. xx-xxx is the Supreme Court's docket number that was assigned to the case, e.g. 03-923.


 * Example #3 – FindLaw source with pin citation

is displayed as:
 * Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, (Jackson, J. concurring).


 * Example #4 – Docket reference

is displayed as:
 * Illinois v. Caballes,

In this specific example, Caballes is somewhat new, but it has in fact been bound by the US Reporter. Therefore, since the volume and page are known, it might be better to instead change the source to FindLaw, coded as follows:

which displays as:
 * Illinois v. Caballes,

Compare these two results, including the destination pages – the latter is preferable when the volume and page are known – thus docket should only be used to cite newer cases which have yet to be formally bound.

Source selection
The full text source to which the template links can be selected with the optional source parameter. The options are:
 * a for AltLaw
 * j for Justia – default will link to this site.
 * f for FindLaw
 * o for OpenJurist
 * w for Wikisource

Because Wikisource requires a link to the case name, you must also use the casename parameter. More example uses for source are shown below.