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404 United States Supreme Court



Revised August 2010

LOCATING CURRENT CASES

The Supreme Court opens its term on the first Monday in October and ends in June or July. The most current sources for new cases include free websites and commercial databases, such as Lexis and Westlaw. See below for links to web sources covering both new and older decisions.

Among the print sources, one of the best resources for checking the status of pending cases is BNA’s United States Law Week (USLW). USLW publishes a full list of all the cases docketed with the Court, including summaries of all the cases and the issues under consideration. An index is provided to access the cases by docket number, case name, or by subject. The full texts of all cases are reprinted in USLW as soon as they are available. Current volumes of USLW are kept on reserve at the Circulation Desk.
 

PRINT SOURCES FOR PUBLISHED DECISIONS

The Court’s published opinions are permanently archived in bound reporters that are organized chronologically. The decisions are first published in advance sheet pamphlets that are then replaced by bound, permanent volumes. The three reporter titles, located in Bay 2-D of the Law Library, are issued by different publishers and differ somewhat in editorial content and publication schedule.
  • United States Reports (U.S.), the official reporter, published by the Government Printing Office, includes a syllabus and headnotes written by the official reporter of the Court. Due to the slower publication schedule for this reporter, most researchers rely on the below so-called unofficial reporters.
  • Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.), West Publishing Company’s unofficial reporter, publishes the official opinions with page references to the official United States Reports. It includes other editorial enhancements, such as West’s headnotes to its American Digest System, and synopses of decisions.
  • Lawyer's Edition (L. Ed. and L. Ed. 2d), published by Lexis Publishing, currently in two series. The decisions are supplemented with a summary and headnotes prepared by the editors, along with a wide array of annotations. For select important cases, summaries of briefs submitted and annotations (essays) written by the editorial staff are included in an appendix to each bound volume. Advance sheets do not contain annotations.

Note on Citation Form—a Supreme Court citation will include the name of the parties, the volume number of the reporter(s), the abbreviation for the reporter, the starting page of the opinion, and the date of the opinion. Citations to Supreme Court cases frequently include citations to more than one reporter. However, if a case is fairly old, the citation may be only to the United States Reports if the case is relatively old, and only to the Supreme Court Reporter or U.S. Law Week if it is recent.
 

USING DIGESTS TO LOCATE DECISIONS BY SUBJECT OR PARTY NAME

  • By Subject-- Use West's United States Supreme Court Digest or Lexis' United States Supreme Court Digest, Lawyers' Edition (both in Bay 2-D) to find Supreme Court Cases on a specific area of law. Use West's Descriptive Word Index or Lexis' Index if your subject term is not cataloged in the main volumes of the digest.

  • By Party Name-- Use the Table of Cases at the end of West's United States Supreme Court Digest or Lexis' United States Supreme Court Digest, Lawyers' Edition (both in Bay 2-D) to find cases by party name. The Lexis digest is more comprehensive in this area.


INTERNET SOURCES FOR U.S. SUPREME COURT DECISIONS


SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES (accessible only to law students & faculty)

  • BNA – U.S. Law Week’s Supreme Court Today http://pubs.bna.com/ip/bna/lwt.nsf/mainview?Openview Provides recent decisions, as well as the ability to search for cases by case name, docket number, date, and topic.
  • Making of Modern Law- U.S. Supreme Court Records & Briefs http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SCRB?locID=dall39617   This database contains 11 million pages and more than 350,000 separate documents on cases from 1832 – 1978.
  • WESTLAW - U.S. Supreme Court Cases; U.S. Supreme Court Cases—Before 1945; Westlaw Bulletin—U.S. Supreme Court; Preview of U.S. Supreme Court Cases.
  • LEXIS -   U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from 1945; U.S. Supreme Court Digest, Lawyers’ Edition.


LOCATING INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT

The following sources provide background information on the Court. Unless otherwise indicated, these titles are located on the library's 4th floor. 

  • Understanding Supreme Court Opinions
    KF8742 .V36 2007
  • The Supreme Court
    KF8742 .R47 2001
  • The Supreme Court Compendium
    KF8742 .S86 2007 (2nd Floor--Reference Collection).
  • The American Supreme Court
    KF8742 .M23 2005
  • Supreme Court of the United States: A Bibliography
    KF8741 .A1 R88 2000
  • Justices, Presidents and Senators: a History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II
    KF8742 .A72 2008
  • The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
    KF8742.A35 O93 2005
  • Methods of Interpretation: How the Supreme Court Reads the Constitution
    KF8742 .B56 2009
  • The Supreme Court in the American Legal System
    KF8742 .S433 2005
  • The Supreme Court: An Essential History
    KF8742.Z9 H64 2007
  • To locate citations to journal and law review articles that discuss specific Supreme Court cases, search LegalTrac, a web-based index available at http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=LT&userGroupName=dall39617, or print indexes such as Index to Legal Periodicals and Current Law Index, available on the third floor in Bay 3-C.


LOCATING RECORDS, BRIEFS, AND ORAL ARGUMENT TRANSCRIPTS

Records, briefs, and oral argument transcripts for U.S. Supreme Court cases are available in a variety of formats.  To summarize, there are selected cases in print, a substantial collection in microform, sources on LEXIS and WESTLAW, and sources on the Internet.  The following is a description of these resources.

  • Print

    • Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States: Constitutional Law  [4th fl.: KF220 .U55].
      Selected opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court on constitutional law issues. There are 359 volumes covering 1793 up through the 2005 Term of the Court.  Coverage includes: petition for certiorari and briefs in opposition, all briefs on the merits by appellant and appellee, amici curiae briefs, and transcripts of oral arguments.
    • The library acquires a limited number of collections of records and briefs for significant cases as well as treatises about particular court decisions.  Search the library catalog by keyword using party names to find these individual publications. As an alternative, browse the library’s shelves on the 4th floor beginning at KF228.
    • Summaries of selected significant briefs filed with the Court are published in the associated volume of U.S. Supreme Court Reports – Lawyer's Edition.
    • Summaries of procedural action on any petition submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court can be found in the indexes to the looseleaf service U.S. Law Week. [Current issues on Reserve; older volumes shelved in Law Storage; text of U.S.L.W. also accessible through BNA, LEXIS, and WESTLAW.]

  • Microforms

    • U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs [microfiche], 1897 to August 2008.  [Central Basement, Cabinets G, H, I.]  Older parts of the series are organized by U.S. Reports citation and more recent years by docket number. Cases with full opinions only. Contains all petitions and briefs or motions in opposition, briefs on the merits by appellant and appellee, and amici curiae briefs. Includes appendices to briefs.
    • U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs [microfilm] , 1832-1896. [Central Basement, Cabinet Z, drawers 7-10.] Cases with full opinions only. Contains all briefs and record transcripts.

  • Lexis (password required)

    • United States Supreme Court Briefs File (January 1979 to date). Briefs for only those cases granted certiorari and Special Masters. Beginning with the 1993 Term, file contains only the briefs on the merits from appellant, appellee, and amici curiae. For 1979 through the 1992 Term, find all briefs, petitions, and briefs or motions in opposition of appellant, appellee, and amici curiae.  Selected appendices to briefs only.
    • United States Supreme Court Transcripts(October 1989 to date). Transcripts of Supreme Court oral arguments from the 1989 Term forward

  • Westlaw (password required)

    • U.S. Supreme Court Briefs database (merits briefs 1990-91 – current; amicus briefs 1995-96- current. Briefs for only those cases granted certiorari or probable jurisdiction noted and oral argument scheduled.
    • Supreme Court Oral Arguments database (1990-91 - current). Transcripts of oral arguments from 1990-91 Term forward.
    • Making of Modern Law – Historical Databases (accessible only to law students & faculty)
      This database contains 11 million pages and more than 350,000 separate documents on cases from 1832 – 1978.

  • Internet

    • United States Supreme Court briefs at the Findlaw website at http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/index.html Cases beginning with the 1999-2000 Term of the Court.  May include petition for certiorari and briefs in opposition, briefs of the parties on the merits and appendices, amici curiae briefs, docket sheets, and links to lower court decisions if available on the web.  Breadth of available documents varies by case. Formats of available documents also vary by case: PDF, plain text, RTF, and OCR-TEXT formats are listed.
    • Supreme Court of the United States website, http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ Click on “Oral Arguments” link. Transcripts of oral arguments begin with the October 2000 Term of the Court.  Transcripts are posted within 10-15 days after argument. Access to Court’s docket information, oral argument calendar, and more.
    • Oyez Project website of Northwestern University at http://www.oyez.org
      RealAudio files for listening to oral arguments for 643 U.S. Supreme Court cases dating back to 1956.  Comprehensive coverage begins with the 1999 Term.