Sources & Bluebook (ylj-sources-and-bluebook)

Legal scholarship is carried in its footnotes, and YLJ formats them in Bluebook form (The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation), supplemented by the Journal's own citation requirements. Every sentence that asserts law or fact carries a footnote with a pinpoint cite to authority that actually supports it. This skill builds correct, supported cites as you draft; the line-by-line editorial verify happens later in ylj-footnotes-and-cite-check.

When to trigger

• Drafting any sentence that states what the law is, what a court held, or a fact
• Unsure of Bluebook form for a case, statute, regulation, book, or article
• A footnote cites a source generally instead of to the exact page/section
• Preparing the manuscript so student editors can source-pull every footnote

Core rules YLJ editors enforce

• A cite for every proposition. Assertions of law and fact are footnoted; unsupported claims get flagged in source-pull.
• Pinpoint, always. Cite the exact page (id. at 412), section (§ 1983), or paragraph — never just the first page of a long opinion when you rely on a holding deep inside it.
• The source must actually say it. A cite that doesn't support the sentence is the single most common source-pull failure; quote or paraphrase only what the page contains.
• Bluebook form by source type (typeface, order of authorities, signals, short forms):

Signals and explanatory parentheticals

• Use introductory signals precisely — See, See also, Cf., But see, Contra, E.g. — each means a different relationship between the cite and the text; misuse signals to a reader (and a source-puller) that you misread the source.
• Add explanatory parentheticals for any cite whose relevance isn't obvious from the text — they prove you read the source and save editors a step.
• Order string cites by the Bluebook hierarchy of authorities; don't list cases alphabetically.

Quotations and paraphrase

• Verbatim language needs quotation marks and a pinpoint cite; paraphrase still needs a cite to the Bluebook + the Journal's requirements. Cleaning up another's words without quotation marks is a source-pull and integrity failure.
• For altered quotations use the Bluebook conventions ([ ], . . ., (emphasis added)).

Checklist

• Every law/fact assertion has a footnote
• Every cite is pinpointed to the page/section relied on
• The cited source actually supports the proposition (spot-check the hardest ones)
• Bluebook form correct per source type; short forms (id., supra) consistent
• Signals chosen deliberately; explanatory parentheticals where relevance isn't obvious
• Quotations marked and pinpointed; alterations flagged per Bluebook

Anti-patterns

• "String of see-cites" with no pinpoints — guarantees source-pull friction
• A cite to the first page of a 40-page opinion for a holding buried at page 38
• Wrong signal (See where the source directly states it, or vice versa)
• Paraphrase that tracks the source's wording without quotation marks (integrity flag)
• Deferring all Bluebook formatting to "the editors will fix it" — they cite-check, they don't ghostwrite

Output format

【Apparatus state】% of assertions footnoted; pinpoints present? Y/N
【Bluebook form】case/statute/article skeletons applied consistently? Y/N
【Signals】used deliberately? Y/N
【Quotations】marked + pinpointed + alterations flagged? Y/N
【Next】ylj-writing-style for prose, then ylj-footnotes-and-cite-check for the full verify

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — Bluebook, citation managers, and source-checking tools
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — YLJ Bluebook / citation-requirement facts