Nikon SD card keeps telling to format?

We bought a new SD card for our Nikon camera. We put it in and then it tells us to format it. We do and then it just puts the screen back on and asks us if we want to format it again. Is it the card? Is it the camera? If we say we don't want to format the card, it tells us to turn the camera off. What do we do?

You've formatted the card in camera, right? If not, do that to see if the problem goes away.

If the problem is still there, contact Nikon about it. Don't try formatting the card in a computer, it will damage the card when being put back into the camera.

Is your Nikon camera old? There may be a chance it only uses SD cards not SDHC like the one you just bought. Check the camera's manual to be sure.

You either have the lock switch on the card in the wrong position, OR your camera is an older camera and can't read the newer 4GB (or larger) SDHC cards. For more info, see this blog article:
http://camerarepair.blogspot.com/2009/07/simple-fix-for-memory-card-locked-error.html