How to Cite the Federal Register, CFR and State Admin Codes

Short answer: cite the Federal Register by volume, page and date, as in 90 Fed. Reg. 2066 (Jan. 10, 2025). Cite the Code of Federal Regulations (the CFR) by title, section and edition year, as in 16 C.F.R. § 464.2 (2026). The Federal Register is the government's daily record of new rules and notices. The CFR is those rules sorted by subject once they are in force.

Written and checked on 12 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; check the cited statute or opinion before relying on it.

TL;DR

• Federal Register form: volume, "Fed. Reg.", first page, date in parentheses. The government's own short form is "90 FR 2066."
• CFR form: title, "C.F.R.", section, edition year in parentheses. The government's short form is "16 CFR 464.2."
• Which one: cite the CFR for text it already holds. Cite the Federal Register for proposals, notices and rules not yet in a CFR edition.
• The year is the printing. It is not the day you looked. The 2025 edition of title 16 has no Part 464. The 2026 edition does.
• Courts can set their own form. Ohio, New York and Florida each do, and the three differ. Ohio's also differs from the library guides, which follow the Bluebook (a common citation manual).

Official text, as of 12 October 2026

Citation: 1 CFR 5.8 (how to cite the Federal Register) and 1 CFR 8.9 (how to cite the CFR), both in title 1 of the CFR.

What it says, verbatim: "Without prejudice to any other form of citation, Federal Register material may be cited by volume and page number, and the short form 'FR' may be used for 'Federal Register'." Section 8.9 says the CFR "may be cited by title and section," and gives "1 CFR 10.2" as its example.

Read from: the eCFR page for 1 CFR 5.8 and the matching page for section 8.9, current to 8 October 2026. The eCFR is the online version, kept current.

What changed in 2025 and 2026: we found no change to either rule. The eCFR lists one version of each, dated 18 December 2015. Separately, Public Law 118-267 (4 January 2025) amended 44 U.S.C. 1510, the codification law, generally, and made two wording changes in 44 U.S.C. 1507, which says the Register "may be cited by volume and page number." The 2024 U.S. Code edition on govinfo.gov shows both.

Two documents, one rule

An agency first publishes a rule in the Federal Register. Later, the Office of the Federal Register, part of the National Archives, folds the rule into the CFR. That step is called codification: the rule gets a permanent place in a numbered set. The authority is 44 U.S.C. 1510(a): the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register may require "a complete codification of the documents of each agency of the Government having general applicability and legal effect."

So one rule often exists in both places. The Register holds the rule as issued, with the agency's explanation of why. The CFR holds only the rule text, sorted by subject. Our guides cover the Federal Register, the CFR and U.S.C. versus C.F.R..

Citing the Federal Register

The official form is the volume and the first page. Under 1 CFR 5.8, "37 FR 6803" means page 6803 of volume 37.

The style-guide form adds a title, the "Fed. Reg." abbreviation and the full date. The George Washington University law library guide, following the 22nd edition of the Bluebook, shows: Importation of Fruits and Vegetables, 60 Fed. Reg. 50379 (Sept. 29, 1995).

Two more parts matter:

• A pinpoint. The University of Cincinnati law library guide says to give the first page, then the page you rely on.
• A parenthetical. A proposed rule gets "proposed" before the date. A final rule that has not reached a CFR edition gets "(to be codified at ...)". The Cincinnati guide shows Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employee, 80 Fed. Reg. 38516 (proposed July 6, 2015) (to be codified at 29 C.F.R. pt. 541).

To find the volume, page and date, use the citation that federalregister.gov lists for the document. For the rule below it is "90 FR 2066."

Citing the CFR

The official form is the title and section. The style-guide form adds the section symbol (§) and the edition year: 8 C.F.R. § 238.1 (2025). To cite a whole part, write "pt." instead: 8 C.F.R. pt. 103 (2025). Both examples come from the Cincinnati guide.

The year names the printing. Per the National Archives, the 50 titles are updated once a year on a quarterly schedule:

The same page says the annual editions on govinfo.gov are the official editions. The eCFR is called "unofficial but endorsed." The Cincinnati and University of South Carolina guides both say to cite the most recent edition.

One real rule, cited three ways

In January 2025 the Federal Trade Commission published its "Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees." It covers hidden fees on live-event tickets and short-term lodging, such as hotels. The federalregister.gov record shows document 2024-30293, volume 90, pages 2066 to 2167, published 10 January 2025, effective 12 May 2025, codified at 16 CFR part 464. The government's PDF is on govinfo.gov.

The operative sentence is in 16 CFR 464.2(a): "It is an unfair and deceptive practice and a violation of this part for any business to offer, display, or advertise any price of a covered good or service without clearly and conspicuously disclosing the total price." The eCFR shows one version of the section, dated 12 May 2025.

The last row follows 1 CFR 21.23, which gives the parallel form "___ CFR ___ (___ FR ___)." The "2167" pinpoint is the page in the Register that carries section 464.2. Part 464 itself begins on page 2166, and the Part 464 source note in the CFR reads "90 FR 2166." The pages before the rule text hold the agency's explanation.

Now the edition trap. The title 16 edition "Revised as of January 1, 2025" has no Part 464. The edition "Revised as of January 1, 2026" does. We read both files on govinfo.gov. A memo that cited "16 C.F.R. § 464.2 (2025)" would send a reader to a printing that lacks it. During 2025, the guides' "(to be codified at 16 C.F.R. pt. 464)" parenthetical would have fit the Register cite. Whether to keep it once the rule is codified is a Bluebook question we could not check, because the manual is paid. Check your manual.

State administrative codes and registers

A state's administrative code is its set of agency rules in force. Its register is the periodic publication of proposed rules and notices. Forms differ, and some courts set their own. We read five, and each row says whose form it is. NYCRR is the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York. WAC is the Washington Administrative Code, and WSR is the Washington State Register.

Ohio shows how far a court's form can drift. Its manual cites federal rules as "16 C.F.R. 113." and "53 Fed.Reg. 24440." with no section symbol and no space in "Fed.Reg." The Cincinnati guide gives its Bluebook example for an Ohio rule as Ohio Admin. Code 5160-9-01 followed by the year 2025 (the guide's own string drops the opening parenthesis). Two strings, two rule books.

We did not verify forms for the other 45 states, the District of Columbia or the territories, including Texas and California. For those, read the state's own code site and your court's rules. The state register guide explains how registers work. Per-state guides: Florida, New York, Ohio, Washington and Virginia.

What goes wrong

• Citing the Register for text the CFR already holds. The South Carolina law library guide says to cite the CFR whenever the regulation is available there.
• Citing the CFR for the agency's reasons. The explanation sits in the Register document.
• Writing the date you looked. The parenthetical holds the edition year.
• Naming an edition that predates the rule. See Part 464 above.
• Dropping "proposed" or "(to be codified at ...)". Readers will take a proposal for a rule in force.
• Treating the eCFR as the official edition. It is endorsed, not official.
• Using one state's form in another state. Check the court's rules first.

Check a citation before you rely on it

Open the official source, read the edition or date it shows, and match it to the year in your citation. To check many cites at once, see how a citation resolver works. The wider map is US law data: the complete guide.

FAQ

How do you cite the Federal Register in Bluebook style? Give the rule's common name if it has one, then the volume, "Fed. Reg.", the first page and the date in parentheses. Example: Importation of Fruits and Vegetables, 60 Fed. Reg. 50379 (Sept. 29, 1995). Add a pinpoint page if you rely on one part.

How do I cite a Federal Register notice? Use the same form with the notice's title. Leave off the "to be codified" parenthetical, since a notice is not codified. The South Carolina guide shows Meeting Notice, 65 Fed. Reg. 3415 (Jan. 21, 2000).

How do you cite the Code of Federal Regulations? Write the title, "C.F.R.", the section symbol, the section and the edition year: 16 C.F.R. § 464.2 (2026). The government's short form is 16 CFR 464.2.

Should I cite the Federal Register or the CFR? Cite the CFR for text it holds. Cite the Federal Register for proposed rules, notices and final rules not yet in an edition. Cite the Register too if you rely on the agency's explanation.

How do I cite a proposed rule? Put "proposed" before the date, then add a "to be codified at" parenthetical naming the CFR part, as the Cincinnati guide shows. Use the full title, volume, page and date as for any Register cite.

What does 90 FR 2066 mean? It means page 2066 of volume 90 of the Federal Register. That page opens the FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, published 10 January 2025.

How do I cite a state administrative code? Use the form your court or publisher requires. Florida, New York and Ohio each publish one, and they differ. If no rule applies, follow the Bluebook's state table or the state's own code site.

For the US statutes, regulations and court rules these laws sit in, see the US primary law API.

Priyansh Khodiyar

Co-Founder & CTO

Priyansh leads engineering and AI at Vaquill AI: the pipelines that pull statutes, regulations and court rules from every US jurisdiction's official publisher, and the REST API, MCP server and open dataset that serve them.