How to Cite an Executive Order

When a U.S. President wants to boss around the federal government, they can just issue an executive order – a pretty straightforward way to get things done. In essence, these are written instructions that essentially have the power of law. And for folks studying up on history, political science, or civics, they’re pretty darn useful primary source documents. But when you’re using them in your work, you need to give them proper credit. And it’s not just to avoid getting slammed for plagiarism – it’s to point your reader to the exact document that you actually looked at.

Why Citing Executive Orders Matters

An executive order’s not just some dusty old government file – it’s a decision that can really change lives and write history. I remember digging up Executive Order 9066, which basically gave the green light for the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Reading through the cold, official language of that order, and connecting it to the real people who were affected, was a pretty intense experience. The way the PDF looked on the screen felt heavy with consequence. Properly citing that document was my way of grounding my arguments in some solid historical fact and showing some respect for the gravity of the topic. Your citations work just the same way – they lend weight to your analysis and give others a clear trail to follow.

Federal Register vs. Code of Federal Regulations

Before you can build a citation, though, you need to track down the official document. Executive orders mainly turn up in two places – think of the Federal Register like the daily newspaper of the U.S. government, and the Code of Federal Regulations as like the encyclopedia that gets updated annually.

• The Federal Register: This is where an executive order first appears, often within a few days of being signed. You’ll cite this source if the order is very recent and hasn’t yet been added to the annual compilation.
• The Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.): This is the official, codified collection of government rules and regulations. All executive orders are compiled into Title 3 of the C.F.R. If an order is more than a year or so old, you should cite the C.F.R. edition.

A quick tip: Government websites like GovInfo are the best places to find these official documents. For more on citing these types of sources, check out this guide on how to cite a government website.

The Anatomy of an Executive Order Citation

So how do you turn these documents into a proper citation? The good news is that your citation will have the same basic pieces of information, regardless of which style guide you’re using. It’s the way you arrange and punctuate those pieces that will be different. Here’s what makes up the essential components:

Component	Description	Example
Order Number	The unique identifying number assigned to the order.	Exec. Order No. 13780
Source	Where the order is published. This will be either the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) or the Federal Register (Fed. Reg.).	3 C.F.R. or 82 Fed. Reg.
Location	The volume and page number within the source.	page 239
Date	The year the order was compiled in the source. For the Federal Register, it’s the exact publication date.	(2018) or (Mar. 6, 2017)
URL	A direct link to the document, if you accessed it online.	https://www.govinfo.gov/…

Citing an Executive Order in MLA Style

MLA treats the issuing body (the President’s office) as the author. This approach frames the order as a government publication. But the core information remains the same. For a deeper look at MLA and other formats, you can explore guides on mastering citations.

Works Cited Format (Federal Register):

United States, Executive Office of the President [Name of President]. Executive Order [Number]: Title of Order. Federal Register, vol. #, no. #, Date Published, pp. #-#. URL.

Works Cited Example:

United States, Executive Office of the President [Joseph R. Biden]. Executive Order 14031: Advancing Equity, Justice, and Opportunity for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Federal Register, vol. 86, no. 105, 3 June 2021, pp. 29675-81. www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-06-03/pdf/2021-11792.pdf.

Parenthetical In-Text Citation:

(United States, Executive Office of the President, Executive Order 14031)

If you find this process tricky, a free citation generator can help assemble the pieces correctly, but it’s always good to understand the underlying format and logic.

The Bluebook: The Legal Style Foundation

You might have noticed that the way we format these citations is a little different from how you’d cite a book or a website. That’s because they are rooted in The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, the gold standard for legal writing. Both APA and MLA generally follow the Bluebook for most government and legal documents. This is basically the foundation that keeps everyone, from students to Supreme Court justices, on the same page – they can all find the exact law or order being referred to. Making sense of the connection helps explain the weird abbreviations (e.g., “C.F.R.”) and why you need to include volume & page numbers.

What If You Cannot Find the Order?

Sometimes, though, an order is super old, hard to find, or just not hanging out on the main government portals. What then? Don’t give up. The National Archives & presidential libraries have some amazing digital collections of government documents. If you find an order quoted in a secondary source, like a news article or a book, you should try your best to find the primary document. If you absolutely cannot, you can cite the secondary source, making it clear you are doing so. For instance, you would cite the news article itself, following the standard format for citing a website, and explain in your text that the order is referenced there.