united-states legal-terms
What does the long underscore in United States case citations stand for?
<p>United States court cases are commonly cited like this:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>Obergefell v. Hodges</em>, 576 U.S. ___ (2015)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So... what is "___" here?</p>

<p>Underscores are often used to indicate that the particular case has not yet been assigned to a specific <strong>volume</strong> (preceding the reporter abbreviation) or <strong>page</strong> (following the reporter abbreviation).</p>

<p>In your example, the case will appear in volume 576, but the exact page has not yet been determined.</p>

<p>This is a citation of a slip opinion, an opinion that has not yet been bound into a volume.  A permanent reference is not yet possible, so the blank lines serve as placeholders for the information that will be added when it becomes available.</p>

<p>For this reason, the page number of the slip opinion is provided, when it is required, in parentheses after the placeholder citation.  For example:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>See <em>United States v. 
  Windsor,</em> 570 U. S. <strong>_, _</strong> (2013) (ALITO, J., dissenting)
  (slip op., at 7).</p>
</blockquote>
