Using quotations in your text

 This exercise demonstrates how to incorporate quotations in your text. If the quotation is long, usually two or more sentences, it should be indented and single spaced. You do not need to put quotations marks at the beginning and end if you indent. Here is an exact quotation from Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507, 124 S.Ct. 2633, 159 L.Ed.2d 578 (2004). Any quotation of any length must be exactly the same as the original.

Striking the proper constitutional balance here is of great importance to the Nation during this period of ongoing combat. But it is equally vital that our calculus not give short shrift to the values that this country holds dear or to the privilege that is American citizenship. It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our Nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad.

With due recognition of these competing concerns, we believe that neither the process proposed by the Government nor the process apparently envisioned by the District Court below strikes the proper constitutional balance when a United States citizen is detained in the United States as an enemy combatant. That is, "the risk of erroneous deprivation" of a detainee's liberty interest is unacceptably high under the Government's proposed rule, while some of the "additional or substitute procedural safeguards" suggested by the District Court are unwarranted in light of their limited "probable value" and the burdens they may impose on the military in such cases.

Here are some acceptable ways of using parts of this quotation in your text.

  1. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the Court opined that “[s]triking the proper constitutional balance here is of great importance to the Nation during this period of ongoing combat.”
  2. The Court found the “’risk of erroneous deprivation’ of a detainee’s liberty interest is unacceptably high” under these rules.
  3. The Court rejected “the process proposed by the Government [and] the process . . . envisioned by the District Court. . .”
  4. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the Court reaffirmed the need to maintain core democratic values during wartime. “[It] is in those times of crisis that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad.”