To cite the U.S. Constitution, use the abbreviation “U.S. Const.” followed by the specific part you’re referencing, such as an article, amendment, section, or clause. The format is the same whether you’re writing a legal brief, a law school paper, or an academic essay that follows Bluebook style. Here’s how to build the citation correctly for any provision.
The Basic Format
Every constitutional citation has two parts: the name of the constitution and the specific provision. For the federal constitution, the name is always “U.S. Const.” followed by the part you’re citing. Nothing is italicized or underlined, and no date is needed as long as the provision is still in effect.
The standard abbreviations for constitutional subdivisions are:
- Article: art.
- Amendment: amend.
- Section: §
- Clause: cl.
No punctuation goes between “U.S. Const.” and the first part identifier. Commas separate each successive subpart. A period ends the citation. So a cite to Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 looks like this:
U.S. Const. art. III, § 2, cl. 2.
Citing Amendments
The Bill of Rights and later amendments use “amend.” instead of “art.” If you’re referencing the entire amendment without pointing to a specific section, the citation is simply:
U.S. Const. amend. XIV.
If you need a particular section within an amendment, add it after a comma:
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.
Use roman numerals for amendment numbers, matching how they appear in the Constitution itself. The First Amendment is amend. I, the Fourteenth is amend. XIV, and so on.
When You Need a Date
Most constitutional citations don’t include a date. You only add one when citing a provision that has been repealed or is no longer in effect. In that case, put the year of repeal in a parenthetical at the end:
U.S. Const. amend. XVIII (repealed 1933).
This tells the reader that the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) was removed from active force. If a provision was superseded by a later amendment rather than formally repealed, the same parenthetical approach applies. For any provision currently in effect, skip the date entirely.
Citing State Constitutions
State constitutions follow the same structure. Replace “U.S.” with the standard abbreviation for the state, and keep everything else identical. The Bluebook uses specific state abbreviations (which sometimes differ from postal codes), so double-check the correct form for your state. A citation to a state constitutional provision looks like this:
N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 2.
The same rules about dates apply. If the state constitutional provision is currently in effect, no date is needed. If it has been amended or repealed, include the relevant year in a parenthetical.
Using Constitutional Citations in Different Styles
The format above follows Bluebook style (Rule 11), which is the standard in legal writing and law reviews. If you’re writing outside the legal field, your citation style may handle things differently.
APA Style
APA treats the Constitution as a legal reference. The in-text citation uses the same Bluebook-style abbreviation: (U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1). No entry goes in the reference list because legal sources are cited only in the text under APA’s guidelines.
MLA Style
MLA doesn’t require a works cited entry for the Constitution. In your text, refer to it by name (“the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”) or use abbreviated parenthetical references. If your instructor wants a works cited entry, list “United States Constitution” as the title with the relevant article or amendment noted.
Chicago Style
Chicago recommends citing constitutional provisions in footnotes or endnotes rather than in a bibliography. The note format closely mirrors legal citation: US Const., amend. XIV, sec. 1. Chicago omits the periods in “US” and spells out “sec.” instead of using the section symbol, but the structure is otherwise the same.
Formatting Tips That Matter
A few small details are easy to get wrong. Never italicize or underline any part of a constitutional citation in Bluebook format. Use the section symbol (§) rather than spelling out “section” when writing in legal citation style. If you can’t type the symbol, most word processors let you insert it through a special characters menu, or you can use Alt+0167 on a Windows keyboard.
When referencing the Constitution in running text rather than a formal citation, capitalize “Constitution” when referring to a specific document (“the U.S. Constitution”) and lowercase it when using the word generically (“every state has a constitution”). Spell out amendment names in running text (“the First Amendment”) rather than using the abbreviated citation form mid-sentence.