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Syracuse University Libraries

Government Information: Judicial Branch - Courts/Legal

A guide for finding government information.

Legal/Court Information

Supreme Court and U.S. Federal Courts

The Supreme Court examines the meaning of laws, how they are applied, and whether they challenge the Constitution. Once the Supreme Court makes a decision, it can only be changed by another Supreme Court decision or by amending (changing) the Constitution.

Court Sessions - LIVE

Research Tools for the Judiciary

Court docket section allows users to browse cases by topic or month. Site also includes justice biographies, rules of the Court, briefs (most recent five years), headlines and other news, and decisions, also most recent five years.

Allows users to search for recent decisions by keyword, docket number, year, words in case name. Archives decisions back to 1990, also groups them by subject. Includes the Wex, a collaboratively built, freely available legal dictionary and encyclopedia.

  • United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition(print source)
    Cases argued and decided in the Supreme Court of the United States. Includes annotations, summaries of counsel briefs, additional indexing and pocket parts, all of which are not included in the official version below. 1790 - present.
    KF101 .U581
    Government Information Reference
    3rd floor, Bird Library
  • United States Reports(print source)
    Also called Official Reports of the Supreme Court. Includes opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1790 - present.
    K.F101.U586
    Government Information Reference
    3rd floor, Bird Library
  • Supreme Court Database
    Lessons on how to analyze cases as well as case data, 1791-2022.