Researching Supreme Court Cases and Briefs

Because of recent decisions and other issues, the United States Supreme Court has come under increasing scrutiny.  Although controversies involving the Justices are best left to the media, research into the Court’s primary function – deciding cases – has become much easier if you know where to look.

The following resources can assist you in your research into the decisions of the Third Branch.

Where do I find the Court’s decisions and some briefs online?

The place to start is with the Supreme Court’s web portal.  This page introduces you to the Court. You can learn about the Court, media information, information about Court Rules, view information about oral arguments.

Two of the most useful pages from the Court’s portal are the Opinions page and the Case Document page. The most recent opinions are in a “slip opinion” format, but the Opinions Page also offers a link to the US Reports page, which includes links to entire bound volumes of the United States Reports back to the 1991 Term.

For a serious researcher, the Case Documents page is a valuable resource.  This page informs the researcher Where to Find Briefs. The Case Documents page offers a link to the Journal.  A valuable reference resource can be found in the Docket Search page. While a list of docket entries in a case might not be particularly enlightening, displaying a case docket will also provide information about briefs that have been filed, including amicus briefs.

Useful Blog about the Supreme Court with up-to-date commentary. Scotusblog describes itself as offering Independent News & Analysis on the U.S. Supreme Court.  This is a very useful resource, which provides up-to-date analysis of cases pending or just decided in the current term and presents inciteful analysis.

If you wish to view Supreme Court opinions in their original format, the Library of Congress presents an online collection of the entire Supreme Court canon in PDF format: United States Reports (Official Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court).

Resources at the Anne Arundel County Public Law Library include Westlaw and Lexis, in addition to providing PCs to view Supreme Court databases in Westlaw.