Not a lawyer, but I work with some. Each of these (except the last) is an abbreviated citation to a published court opinion cited earlier in the decision. Am.

Not a lawyer, but I work with some. Each of these (except the last) is an abbreviated citation to a published court opinion cited earlier in the decision. Am. Civil Liberties Union v. Alvarez, 679 F.3d 583, 595–602 (7th Cir. 2012) Glik v. Cunniffe, 655 F.3d 78, 82 (1st Cir. 2011) Smith v. City of Cumming, 212 F.3d 1332, 1333 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 978 (2000) F.3d is an abbreviation for Federal Reporter, 3rd series (the current series of the Federal Reporter, which publishes Federal appeals court decisions ). When you see a citation like x F.3d y, it means "Federal Reporter, 3rd series, volume x, page y". The form "x F.3d at z" means "volume x, page z, but that's the middle of a decision, not its start" (called a "pin cite"). The form "x. F.3d y, z" is another way of saying "the decision starts at page y of volume x, but here we are specifically referring to page z". The part in parentheses indicates which particular court wrote the decision (a particular numbered circuit court of appeals) and in what year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reporter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reporter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeal... You can often look up the texts of these decisions online in various places, although I don't see a convenient up-to-date free F.3d online anywhere. Originally the concept was going to a library, which would have huge long series of reporters (books that publish court decisions), and you could tell the librarian "I'd like volume 655 of the Federal Reporter 3rd series, please", and then turn to page 85 to see what the First Circuit said on the page in question of its Glik decision. District court decisions (from the trial level) are cited in the same way but with "F.Supp." (a different reporter); Supreme Court decisions are also cited in the same way but the reporter is "U.S." and the court doesn't have to be mentioned in parentheses, because the Supreme Court is the only court whose decisions are published by United States Reports. So you might see Foo v. Bar, x F.Supp. y (D.Somewhere yyyy) ← district court Foo v. Bar, x F.3d y (nth Cir. yyyy) ← circuit court of appeal Foo v. Bar, x U.S. y (yyyy) ← Supreme Court and each one could also cite to a specific page or range of pages within the opinion by using "at z" or "y, z".