Political Science

The blog is designed to look at contemporary and historical Supreme Court issues at an empirical level. Issues covered in the blog range from examining Supreme Court attorneys, the Justices, and other actors in the Court to analyzing decisions and oral arguments. This outlet provides the opportunity to perform smaller scale work that is based off of larger projects as well as to answer unique questions about the Supreme Court. Empirical SCOTUS’ long form posts can also be found on SCOTUSBlog.

Case Histories: "Find compilations of briefs, dockets, joint appendixes, oral arguments, opinions and other documents for a case. Precise filtering options allow you to customize each case history to meet your research needs."

Briefs: "Search for briefs submitted by the Petitioner or Respondent, plus Amicus Curiae (”friend of the court”) Briefs. Filtering options allow you to narrow your search to a specific type of brief, such as the Petition for Writ of Certiorari."

Landmark Cases - "Cases of historical and legal significance which may establish a new legal principle or concept or otherwise substantially change the interpretation of existing law."

Records and briefs are also available in PDF format from the database U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs: 1832-1978. Derived from two essential reference sources; for the period 1832 (when printed Court records began) through 1915, the documents are based primarily on the holdings of the Jenkins Memorial Law Library, America's first law library, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; for 1915-1978, the source is the Library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, a nationally recognized research facility and the single largest member supported law library in the United States

Earliest brief dated August 12, 1936 through current. Includes merit briefs for cases granted cert., amicus curiae briefs, joint appendices and special masters beginning in January 1979, with selected coverage from 1936. Access Restricted.

U.S. Supreme Court Records & Briefs are available from Westlaw's Supreme Court Cases database.

"Oyez (pronounced oh-yay), a free law project at Chicago-Kent, is a multimedia archive devoted to making the Supreme Court of the United States accessible to everyone. It is a complete and authoritative source for all of the Court’s audio since the installation of a recording system in October 1955."

A case selected for argument usually involves interpretations of the U. S. Constitution or federal law. At least four Justices have selected the case as being of such importance that the Supreme Court must resolve the legal issues.

Starting with the 2010 Term, audio from all oral arguments are posted on the Court's website at the end of each argument week, Fridays after Conference, to listen to or download.

"Beginning with the October 2006 Term, the Court has made the transcripts of oral arguments available free to the public on its website, www.supremecourt.gov, on the same day an argument is heard by the Supreme Court...

Beginning with the October Term 2010, the audio recordings of all oral arguments heard by the Supreme Court of the United States are available free to the public on the Court’s website, www.supremecourt.gov. The audio recordings are posted on Fridays at the end of each argument week."