How to do in text citations from Oyez.org?

Question

Question: I’m working on my term paper for my political science class, and I’ve been having a hard time figuring out how to do in-text citations when citing Supreme Court cases from Oyez.org. Since Oyez doesn’t really list the publication date of the briefing page or I just can't see it at all, how am I supposed to cite it properly in-text? Should I just write (Oyez) along with the year the Supreme Court case was decided? Thank you for your help!

Example: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1968/21

Part of term paper: "A group of students in Des Moines held a meeting in the home of 16-year-old Christopher Eckardt to plan a public showing of their support for a truce in the Vietnam War. The students decided to wear black armbands throughout the holiday season and to fast on Dec 16 and New Year's Eve. The school learned about the plan and decided to send home the students on Dec 16 after asking them not to go forth with the protest." (In text Citation.) The question at hand was, does prohibiting students from wearing armbands in public schools as a form of symbolic protest infringe upon their First Amendment right to free speech?

Answer 1

Hello!

I would offer two options to solve this issue. I'll begin by explaining that it depends if you are writing your political science paper in MLA or APA style.

For MLA: You can omit the publication date from the in-text citation and just have "(Oyez)" as your complete in-text citation.

For APA: You can write "n.d." as a way to establish that there is no date available to you. So, this would look like "(Oyez, n.d.)" or "(n.d.)" as an in-text citation depending on if you've already mention the source's name (Oyez) in the sentence.

For both of these, however, I would recommend using the accessed date in your citation/reference at the end of the essay. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Answer 2

Hi Yeser. It's a pleasure to meet you via Wyzant. What a great topic for your term paper. You've clearly found a credible source to use in your essay-- now let's ensure you cite the case correctly. What citation style does your teacher prefer? For a political science class, teachers usually use APSA (American Political Science Association) or Chicago/ Turabian.

Need the answer quickly? See below:

(Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District 1969).

Once you cite it the first time, feel free to shorten the parenthetical citation (Tinker v. Des Moines 1969). Note that the name of the petitioner and respondent are italicized but the 'v' and 'year' are not.

Want the full explanation? Read below.

When you type in the link to your court case (https://www.oyez.org/cases/1968/21), you'll see a full citation all the way at the botton of the page. I clicked on 'Chicago' style since the site doesn't include ASPA. The site provides this citation for your bibliography: "Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District." Oyez. Accessed May 5, 2025. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1968/21.

*Note they include the date you access the information, so you'll want to change that on your paper. Mine above includes today's date.

A parenthetical citation (aka an in-text citation) to a statute or court case should include the name of the case (in italics except for v.) or statute and the year. This information is directly from ASPA's citation guidelines. Note though, if your teacher prefers Chicago/Turabian, add a comma between the court case and the year. See the difference below:

ASPA: (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District 1969).

Chicago/ Turabian: (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 1969).

I hope this helps. If you need more help, just let me know.

All my best,

Mrs. Conti