How Federal Cases Are Published
Cases are published in books called reporters. Although today cases are usually accessed online, case citations still refer to print reporters.
For example, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) means the case begins on page 483, volume 347, of the United States Reports (U.S.)
The United States Reports is the official reporter for U.S. Supreme Court cases.
Other federal cases are published unofficially by the private publisher Westlaw as summarized below:
Federal Case Law
Cases are decisions made by courts in lawsuits or criminal prosecutions. Cases interpret and apply statutes and regulations and may also create and refine "common law" (laws created solely by the courts.)
Sources of federal cases include:
- Google ScholarGoogle's unofficial collection of published U.S. Supreme Court cases since 1791 and other U.S. federal cases since 1923. To use, select "Case law" and then "Federal courts" using the buttons underneath the search box. When reading a case, click the "How Cited" button at the top of the screen to find other cases that have cited the case.
- U.S. Courts (govinfo)Selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy court opinions since April 2004, provided by the U.S. Government Publishing Office.
- Ninth Circuit OpinionsOfficial Ninth Circuit Court website providing its published appellate opinions from January 3, 2005 onwards.
- U.S. Supreme Court OpinionsThe Supreme Court's official website provides slip (preliminary) opinions from 2008 to the present, as well as PDFs of the bound volumes of the United States Reports from 1991 to 2007.
- Supreme Court Cases (CLII)Unofficial versions of U.S. Supreme Court cases, provided by the Cornell Legal Information Institute. Use the options at the bottom of the page to browse by topic, author, or party.
- OpenJurist United States Reports and Federal ReporterUnofficial versions of the United States Reports and the Federal Reporters from their beginnings to the present.
- Justia Case LawUnofficial versions of United States Reports and Federal Reporters. Also provides some unpublished district court opinions.
Federal Dockets and Court Documents
Dockets are lists of court documents filed by the parties in a case. Most federal dockets and court documents can be accessed for a fee through the federal court systems' PACER website:
Several free websites provide PACER documents for free or provide additional documents not available on PACER:
- Court Listener RECAPCourt Listener RECAP allows anyone to access documents that have previously been pulled from the federal courts' PACER filing system. It also provides free browser extensions so that you can automatically save and share any documents that you purchase from PACER. Be aware, however, that because RECAP depends on users to upload the documents it cannot guarantee their reliability or completeness.
- PACER ProPACER Pro allows existing PACER users to sign up for a free account that streamlines searching, retrieving, and saving documents (for standard PACER fees) and provides free access to documents pulled by previous PACER Pro users. Documents are generally reliable because they are pulled directly from PACER by PACER Pro, but you will still need to pay to refresh the docket to ensure completeness.
- Preview of United States Supreme Court CasesUnofficial American Bar Association collection of briefs and calendars for Supreme Court cases dating back to 2003.
- Oyez ProjectUnofficial project by Chicago-Kent law school to provide audio recordings of Supreme Court arguments. Also provides links to full-text opinions on Justia, a browse by issue feature, and biographies of Supreme Court justices.