How do I cite a MN State Statute in APA, 6th edition?
This is what I am trying to cite - 120A.22 COMPULSORY INSTRUCTION Subd. 12.Legitimate exemptions
Answer
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, offers some limited examples of citing legal materials, then defers to the Blue Book, which is the complicated and miserable to use "Bible" of legal citing sources.
This is the example APA gives of a state statute on pp. 2019-2020 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition. They also chose to use an example from an annotated statute, which makes it more confusing.
Mental Care and Treatment Act, 4 Kan. Stat. Ann. ₴₴ 59-2901-2941 (1983 & Supp. 1992).
So now we look at it and try and figure out the parts. The basics seem to be - Title of statute | State | Statute number | year.
You are also interested in a subdivision of the statute. I believe it is indicated by a hyphen after the statute number. This, from the discussion underneath the statute example on p. 220.
"If you are discussing a particular provision of the law, cite the particular section in which the provision appeared (e.g. ₴ 59-203).
Now we plug in the information from the statute you are trying to cite into the formula from above and voila!
Compulsory Instruction. Minn. Stat. ₴₴ 120.22-12 (2019).
There are two things I am not sure of with this. First, APA usually says to use the U.S. Postal code abbreviations, but in the example they provide they do not use the postal code. I am guessing it might be that APA is deferring to the Blue Book, which uses non-postal code abbreviations. I decided to go with that, since it follows their example.
Second, should a retrieval statement be included? The examples for citing legal materials all come from print sources, but lay users are going to be using the statutes online. Obviously, in the guidelines for electronic resources, URLs are included. Also, we must always think about the reader of your paper, and making their life easier if they choose to refer to your sources. With this in mind, I don't think it would be a bad idea to add it. But that is my opinion.
Compulsory Instruction. Minn. Stat. ₴₴ 120.22-12 (2019). Retrieved from https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/120A.22