Capitalize Names of Governing Bodies
Capitalization
Rulebase Summary
Capitalize the names of governing bodies at every level — international, national, state, and local — including organizations like the United Nations, the Supreme Court, and the City Council. Short forms of international and national organizations may be capitalized, but capitalizing short forms of state or local bodies is not recommended.
The words federal, government, nation, and republic are now less frequently capitalized when referring generally to the United States government — the modern trend is to lowercase them. If they are part of an official organizational name, however, capitalize them.
Examples
A. The case went before the supreme court in 2018.
A. The case went before the Supreme Court in 2018.
Specific names of governing bodies are capitalized.
A. The Federal Government issued new regulations last year.
A. The federal government issued new regulations last year.
Federal and government are lowercased when used generally — the modern trend favors lowercase.
Transcript Notes
Capitalize the titles of departments in the President's Cabinet, including the standalone word 'department' when referring to a specific department. Capitalize the titles of positions in the Cabinet, including the standalone word 'secretary' when it refers to a specific Cabinet secretary. Capitalize 'Cabinet' when referring to the advisory board to the President of the United States.
Capitalize 'Congress' when it refers to the U.S. lawmaking body; do not capitalize the adjective 'congressional' (an exception to the proper-noun adjective rule). Capitalize 'Senate' and 'House' when they refer to U.S. lawmaking bodies — be especially careful with 'house,' which is only capped when it specifically means the House of Representatives.
Capitalize names of standing committees in the House and Senate. The word 'committee' alone is lowercase when not part of the full name. Capitalize state and city legislative body names when part of the full name; leave generic standalone references lowercase.
Style Guide References (9)
Morson's
Morson's
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