Research Guides: Political Science: Supreme Court

Supreme Court Cases/Opinions/Decisions

A citation to a U.S. Supreme Court case will look like this: United States v Wong Kim Ark 169 U.S. 649 (1898), which means that the text of the Opinion can be found in Volume 169 of the United States Reports beginning on page 649.
The full text of Supreme Court Cases are found both in print and online.
Print volumes of the U.S. Supreme Court are called the United States Reports and are located on the ground floor of Nimitz Library at call number KF101.U52.

Following are websites with varying coverage of Supreme Court cases.

PDF versions of Volumes 1-542 of the United States Reports cover the court’s first decision in 1791 and the colonial era courts that preceded the Supreme Court.

Cornell University Law School

Search cases by party, topic, or author.
Justia.com

Find cases by "court," back to 1791, and understandable abstracts of case.
Oyez from Kent College of Law in Illinois
Supreme Court -- Official Site

Transcripts and audio for arguments available for recent cases. Calendar, recent decisions.

The Supreme Court A-Z
In addition to history, traditions, organization, dynamics, and personalities, also find coverage of significant cases and changes on the bench More than 350 alphabetized entries.

Supreme Court Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains all Supreme Court decisions full-text, biographies of Supreme Court justices, and the U. S. Constitution. The system also has useful "Cases in Context" for interesting public policy topics such as Capital Punishment, Federalism and Abortion.

Supreme Court Compendium
Historical and statistical information including nominations, confirmations, voting trends, milestones, and chronology beginning with 1787.
Supreme Court Review
Discussions of the Court's most compelling decisions, typically written by legal experts.
Supreme Court Yearbook
Actions and opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court with clear, in-depth analysis of every decision made by the nation's highest court since the 1989-1990 term and the justices who ruled on them.