Cases before the Court
The Supreme Court's web site has the Court's Docket, listing cases granted review and schedules of arguments.
The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School has the court's docket and argument calendars, with links to lower court decisions, briefs, and links to summaries of cases prepared by the Medill School of Journalism. Sign up for the LII Bulletin to get summaries of new decisions by email as soon as they are released.
United States Law Week, a weekly law journal from BNA, summaries of cases on the court's dockets and up-to-date status information in the Supreme Court Today section. United States Law Week also reports on arguments in major cases, splits between circuits, and publishes a roundup of cases at the end of every term. The print version is located at call number XXKF101.1.U53; current term in the Reserve Reading Room, prior terms in the fifth floor stacks. U of C Students and faculty may receive the U.S. Law Week email alert.
Findlaw's U.S. Supreme Court Center is a handy place to find dockets, calendars, and briefs, for the current terms, and past terms back to October 1991.
Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases is a newsletter published by the American Bar Association, which often includes summaries of cases from our professors. Call number XXKF4547.8.P7; current term in the Reserve Reading Room. Available on LexisNexis and Westlaw (database SCT-PREVIEW).
Briefs and Oral Arguments
Findlaw has briefs for cases scheduled for oral arguments from the current term, and earlier terms back to October 1999 term, in PDF format.
The Supreme Court posts transcripts of oral arguments on their web site. Beginning with the 2006 term, transcripts will be available the same day as arguments.
Westlaw has merit briefs, appendixes, and transcripts of oral arguments for cases argued since the October 1990 term, amicus briefs for cases argued since the October 1995 term. Briefs are in the SCT-BRIEF database; oral arguments are in the database SCT-ORALARG. If you KeyCite a lower court decision that the Supreme Court has agreed to review, the History tab will list available briefs and oral argument transcripts.
LexisNexis and LexisNexis Academic have merit briefs for cases argued since the October 1979 term. For argued cases from the 1979 through 1992 terms, LexisNexis also has amicus briefs and joint appendixes.
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 has briefs and records for argued and cert denied cases, both searchable full text and PDF images.
Briefs and records for cases from 1790 to 1807 are available in the microfilm set Case papers of the Supreme Court of the U.S., 1790-1807, call number K8; D'Angelo Law Library Microforms. Briefs from 1832 to 1896 are also available on microfilm, at call number K146, Regenstein 3rd Floor, Law Microforms.
The D'Angelo Law Library is a depository for Supreme Court Briefs and Records. Briefs are in storage and not available.
The Curiae Project at Yale Law School is digitizing briefs from the most frequently cited cases. Briefs are available in PDF and HTML formats.
Oyez has recordings of arguments in streaming audio and MP3 formats.
The Library receives transcripts of oral arguments, on microfiche, from the
1969 term to the last term.
Title: The complete oral arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Call number: microfiche XXKF101.9.C729, D'Angelo Law Microforms.
Landmark Briefs and and arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States,
constitutional law includes transcripts for arguments when available. Call
number: XXKF101.8.K87, D'Angelo Law Stacks.
Another copy: JK1507 1975, Regenstein, Reading Room, Floor 2.
Opinions
Opinions are first issued as slip opinions. Later, "preliminary prints" of the United States Reports are printed, and three years later, once the Court has made its final corrections, bound volumes of United States Reports are printed. Bound volumes of the United States Reports are in the Wilson Reading Room and D'Angelo Law Stacks, fifth floor, at call number XXKF101.A212. Preliminary prints are in the Reserve Reading Room.
Hein Online has every opinion in PDF form, from slip opinions, preliminary prints, and bound volumes of United States Reports.
The Supreme Court has a table of dates of decisions and arguments in cases published in United States Reports volumes 2 -107 (1791-1882), gathered from handwritten Court records, the Engrossed Minutes and Engrossed Documents.
United
States Law Week. Opinions appear in print within a week.
Print edition: XXKF101.1.U53 D'Angelo Law Reserve Reading Room
West's Supreme Court Reporter is on Westlaw (database SCT), with PDF images and star pages for U.S. Reports. Print edition: XXKF101.A322 Bookstacks, Wilson Reading Room; unbound advance sheets in the D'Angelo Law Reserve Reading Room.
United Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers Edition (L.Ed. 2d) are published by LexisNexis, and are available on LexisNexis and LexisNexis Academic. Lawyers Edition includes summaries of briefs and articles, or annotations, about important cases. Print edition: XXKF101.A313 D'Angelo Law Wilson Reading Room and Bookstacks.
Free sources of opinions. Findlaw has opinions from 1893 to the present. The Legal Information Institute has opinions from 1990 to the present, plus selected widely cited historical opinions. LexisOne has all opinions, and is free to registered users.
Digests, Indexes, and Citators
- West's Federal Practice Digest 3rd & 4th.
- AWest Key-Number Digest covering the Supreme Court and lower federal courts.
XX KF127.W480 D'Angelo Law Reading Room & Bookstacks - U.S. Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers Edition
- To identify annotations on a topic, use the Index to Annotations.
To find annotations that discuss a case you are interested in, use the Quick Case Table or Shepardize your case.
To find all Supreme Court cases that deal with an issue, use the U.S. Supreme Court Digest on Lexis.
Call number: XXKF101.A313 Wilson Reading Room - ALR Federal
- ALR Federal (ALR Fed ) publishes selected federal court decisions, with
annotations that discuss all relevant caselaw on the issue decided. To find
annotations on your topic, use the Index to Annotations. To find annotations
that cite a federal case or statute you are interested in, use KeyCite, Shepards,
or the ALR Federal Tables volume.
Call number: XXKF132.A53 D'Angelo Law Wilson Reading Room - Shepards Citations
- Shepards Citations, available on Lexis and LexisNexis Academic, lists all cases and law review articles that cite an opinion, and indicates whether your case is still good law.
- Keycite
- KeyCite, on Westlaw, gives you all citations to a case, lower court opinions, briefs, and oral argument transcripts, and indicates whether the case is still good law.
Biographical and Statistical Information
David G. Savage, Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court (4th ed., CQ Press, 2004)
Two-volume encyclopedic history of the Court. Includes brief biographies of
the justices, chronology of major decisions, chronological table of natural
courts, list of acts declared unconstitutional, full text of key decisions.
XXKF8742 .W567 2004 D'Angelo Law Reference
CQ Supreme Court Collection - encyclopedia articles, yearbooks, biographies of justices, and statistical analysis of the Court's voting dynamics and alignments from 1948 to the present.
Leon Friedman & Fred L. Israel (eds.), The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1969. 4 vols. 1969. Appendix: The Burger Court, 1969-1978.
XXKF8744.F750 D'Angelo Law Reference
Leon Friedman & Fred L. Israel (eds.), The Justices of the United
States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions (1995). Biographies
of the justices and resumes of their work, vital statistics from Roy M. Mersky,
a list of justices and tables of natural courts, acts held unconstitutional,
Supreme Court decisions overruled by later decisions, and appointments by
political party.
XXKF8744.F750 D'Angelo Law Reference
Claire Cushman (ed.), The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies,
1789-1995 (1995) Published by Congressional Quarterly for the Supreme
Court Historical Society.
XXKF8744.S860 1995 D'Angelo Law Reference
Johnny H. Killian & George A. Costello (eds.), The
Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: annotations
of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 29, 1992.
(1996; with 2000 supplement) Includes tables of federal, state, and local
laws held unconstitutional, overruled Supreme Court decisions, and unratified
proposed amendments to the Constitution.
XXKF4527.U540 1996 D'Angelo Law Reference
Albert P. Blaustein and Roy M. Mersky, The first one hundred justices
: statistical studies on the Supreme Court of the United States.
XXKF8741.A152B60 D'Angelo Law Bookstacks
Roy M. Mersky & J. Myron Jacobstein (eds.), The Supreme Court of the
United States : hearings and reports on successful and unsuccessful nominations
of Supreme Court Justices by the Senate Judiciary Committee, 1916-. Buffalo
: W.S. Hein, 1977-.
XXKF8744.J80 D'Angelo Law Bookstacks
Lee Epstein et al. (eds.), The Supreme Court Compendium: data, decisions,
and developments. (4th ed. CQ Press, 2007)
XXKF8742.E682 2007 D'Angelo Law Reserve
Harvard Law Review.
Every year since 1951, the Harvard Law Review has published a discussion
of the major decisions of the latest term, and statistical analysis of the
justices' votes. Look for the article titled "Supreme Court: 19xx Term."
KA1.S91 D'Angelo Law Reserve, Bookstacks, and Chicago Collection