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Supreme Court Current Awareness
Resources for USF Law Faculty, Staff and Students
Federal Research #5 - Dorraine Zief Law Library Handout
Prepared by Senior Reference Librarian Lee Ryan
Introduction
This guide discusses
how to find:
For a guide to
Supreme Court research in general, see the Zief Library handout "United
States Supreme Court Research—Getting Started."
For advice specific to your interests, speak to a reference librarian or call
(415) 422-6773.
A
Word About Lexis & Westlaw
This guide mentions
and links to various Lexis and Westlaw resources. The Zief Law Library's contracts
with Lexis and Westlaw limit our use of Lexis and Westlaw to current students,
faculty, and staff members of the University of San Francisco School of Law.
For information about who may use Lexis and Westlaw, how to arrange your own
subscription, and how to connect to Lexis and Westlaw via the Web, see the USF
Law Library's introduction to Lexis and Westlaw.
Authorized users
who follow a Lexis or Westlaw link will first need to sign on to Lexis or Westlaw
before viewing results or coming to the search screen.
Supreme
Court News
BNA's Supreme
Court Today from United States Law Week
(Print: KF 105 .U54 OPEN RESERVE. Web access: see below.)
The weekly "Supreme
Court Today" newsletter (filed in the U.S. Law Week "Supreme
Court" binder) reports comprehensively on the latest developments in the
court. "Term in review" or "review of term" issues appear
each year in July and August.
A "Summary
of Orders" section reports on cases granted review and includes a summary
of questions presented and citations to the decision below. A "Subject
Matter Summary" reports briefly on selected recently-filed cases.
Supreme
Court Today is available on the web version of U.S. Law Week.
Features include: topical lists of cases decided, cases granted review, and
all cases filed; a schedule of arguments; news stories reporting on oral arguments
or reviewing the term; a search engine that allows searching by keyword, subject,
name, status, docket number, attorneys, and ruling below. (To use "Supreme
Court Today" on the web, go to the Zief Library's
Online Resources page and select "Supreme Court Today" from the
Tools for Finding Legal Articles & Books
category.)
"SCOTUSBlog"
- News & Commentary
SCOTUSBlog
(http://www.scotusblog.com/) is a chronological review — often with extensive
commentary and analysis — of grants and denials of review, oral arguments,
decisions, and other developments in the Court. The authors are lawyers with
Supreme Court practices (and their clerks) and law professors.
Supreme Court
News From the Washington Post
The
Washington Post's Supreme Court News page (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/courts/supremecourt/)
includes news reports from the Washington Post and AP, and commentary
by the Post's Charles Lane.
law.com United States Supreme Court Monitor
The "News" portion
of the Supreme Court Monitor
reproduces stories from law.com's affiliate publications (e.g., the American
Lawyer, the Legal Times, the Recorder, the National
Law Journal, etc.) and the Associated Press. It is free, but registration
is required.
The "Commentary"
feature of the Supreme Court Monitor reproduces lengthier analyses from the
same affiliate publications.
Supreme Court
News via FindLaw
FindLaw's "Supreme
Court Headlines" (http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/sc/) links to
wire service stories on the Court.
Supreme Court
News via Lexis & Westlaw
Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times, Joan Biskupic of USA
Today, Charles Lane of the Washington Post, and David Savage
of the Los Angeles Times are all respected Supreme Court reporters.
To use Lexis to find recent articles by these reporters, search the
New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post,
or the Los Angeles Times as follows.
"supreme court" and byline("linda greenhouse") and date
aft 8/2006
"supreme court" and byline("joan biskupic") and date aft
8/2006
"supreme court" and byline("charles lane") and date aft
8/2006
"supreme court" and byline("david g. savage") and date
aft 8/2006
To use Westlaw
to find recent articles by Linda Greenhouse or Joan Biskupic, search the New
York Times (NYT) or USA Today (USATD) as follows.
"supreme court" and author("linda greenhouse")
and date(after 8/2006)
"supreme court" and author("joan biskupic") and date(after
8/2006)
"supreme court" and author("david g. savage") and date(after
8/2006)
The Zief Law Library reference staff can also show you how to set up a Lexis
Alert or WestClip search to run periodically on Lexis and Westlaw and email
the latest stories by these reporters.
[Return
to Introduction]
New
Grants of Review
Westlaw Bulletin
- U.S. Supreme Court (WLB-SCT)
To be alerted
when the Court grants review, use the Westlaw
Bulletin - U.S. Supreme Court (WLB-SCT), which reports comprehensively on
orders granting review within a few days of the order. Reports in WLB-SCT include
a summary of the issues presented and links to the decision below. To get regular
alerts, set up a "WestClip" search in WLB-SCT along these lines:
(certiorari
w/s grant!) or (probable w/s jurisdiction w/s note* or noting) and date(after
8/2006)
[This search
also retrieves some reports of cases in which the Court denied cert.]
[For authorized
Westlaw subscribers: to run this search now, select the link below.]
Westlaw
Bulletin - U.S. Supreme Court — New Grants of Certiorari
If you'd like
advice on setting up a WestClip search, contact a reference librarian at the
Zief Law Library.
Westlaw's Supreme
Court Reporter Database (SCT)
For almost immediate
notification that the Court has granted review, run a search in (or create a
WestClip search to run each weekday in) Westlaw's Supreme
Court Reporter (SCT) database to retrieve the Court's memoranda decisions
granting review. These orders are available on Westlaw within hours of their
release by the Court. They do not contain any summary of the issues, but they
do link to the case below, if that opinion is available on WESTLAW.
Model your search
on the following:
(petition
+s writ +s certiorari +s granted) or ("probable jurisdiction" w/3
note or noted) and citation(mem) and date(after 8/2006)
[For authorized
Westlaw subscribers: to run this search now, select the link below.]
Westlaw's
Supreme Court Reporter Database – New Grants of Certiorari
BNA's Supreme
Court Today
(Print: KF 105 .U54 OPEN RESERVE. Web access: see below.)
The "Supreme
Court Today" newsletter briefly summarizes cases granted review. Each summary
includes questions presented and citations to the case below.
On the web version
of Supreme
Court Today, select the "Cases Granted Review" link under either
the "Topical" or "Status" heading on the left. In the print
version, see the "Summary of Orders" section.
[Return
to Introduction]
Analysis
of Pending Cases
ABA's Preview
of United States Supreme Court Cases
(Print: KF 101.1 .P7 OPEN RESERVE. Lexis, Westlaw and web access: see below.)
The Preview, published by the ABA Division for Public Education,
includes certain documents previewing cases selected for oral argument before
the U.S. Supreme Court. Regular monthly issues during the term cover cases scheduled
for argument that month. For each case the author (usually a law professor)
writes a detailed article covering the facts, the issues presented, and significance
of the case.
The Preview is published eight times per year. There are monthly issues from
September to April and a special annual issue reviewing the past term.
It is also accessible through Lexis via the source
Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases (ABA;PRE-VU) (coverage begins
January 1991) and on Westlaw via "Preview of U.S. Supreme Court Cases"
(SCT-PREVIEW)
(coverage begins December 1989).
Selections from the Preview are available available on the site. See especially
the Cases
at a Glance section.
On The Docket,
from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism
On
The Docket (http://docket.medill.northwestern.edu/) provides detailed summaries
of cases the Court has agreed to review. As of early October 2006, there were
summaries of about 40 pending cases. Summaries are loaded within a day or two
of orders granting review.
The case summaries
link to the opinion below (provided it's available on the web). Some summaries
also have links to selected briefs, web sites of parties or interested groups,
or other news sites on the web.
The "Supreme
Court Collection" at Cornell's Legal Information Institute
In the Supreme
Court Collection (http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html), the
Previews from liibulletin
link in the "Case Updates" category leads to information on pending
cases, including short summaries of questions presented.
law.com United
States Supreme Court Monitor
The "Certiorari
Granted" portion of the Supreme
Court Monitor lists cases by topic and argument date, and includes a brief
summary of the questions presented.
[Return to Introduction]
Supreme Court Times on LawMemo.com
The Supreme Court Times lists all
of the cases in the Court's current term and is updated regularly as cases are
decided. It contains links to blog commentary and predictions on case outcomes,
as well as links to other Supreme Court-related resources (most of which are
covered in this research guide). Also included is a list of pending cases that
have been held over to the next Court term.
Briefs
& Petitions
Findlaw's "Supreme
Court Center"
The "Briefs"
section of the Supreme
Court Center lists pending cases alphabetically and provides selected briefs
and cert. petitions. As of early October 2006, briefs were available for the
2006-2007 term.
ABA's Preview
of United States Supreme Court Cases — Merit Briefs Section
(Print: KF 101.1 .P7 OPEN RESERVE. Lexis, Westlaw and web access: see below.)
The Preview is on Lexis as the source
Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases (ABA;PRE-VU) from January 1991;
on Westlaw as "Preview of U.S. Supreme Court Cases" (SCT-PREVIEW)
from December 1989.
On the free web version, the Merit
Briefs section lists cases alphabetically and by argument date. As of August
2007, some briefs were available for the 2007-2008 term.
Both Lexis and
Westlaw have parties' and amicus briefs for review granted cases. Briefs in
a case are loaded piecemeal (as they are received) following the grant of review.
Lexis's "U.S. Supreme Court Briefs" (short name: GENFED;BRIEF) source
also includes selected cert. petitions and briefs in support of or opposition
to those petitions. Westlaw has merit briefs in its "U.S. Supreme Court
Briefs" (SCT-BRIEF) database. Westlaw makes selected cert. petitions (and
supporting and opposing briefs) available in its "Petition for Writ of
Certiorari to the US Supreme Court" (SCT-PETITION) database.
In Lexis's "U.S.
Supreme Court Briefs" (GENFED;BRIEF) source, follow these examples for
docket number or case name searches:
number(05-380)
name(gonzales and carhart)
In Westlaw's
"U.S. Supreme Court Briefs" (SCT-BRIEF) database or "Petition
for Writ of Certiorari to the US Supreme Court" (SCT-PETITION) database,
follow these examples for docket number or case name searches:
dn(05-380)
title(gonzales and carhart)
[Return
to Introduction]
Oral
Argument Transcripts
Official Supreme
Court Site
The United States Supreme Court
site (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/) has an archive
of oral argument transcripts beginning with the 2000-2001 Term. Transcripts
appear in the archive on the day of the argument.
Both Lexis and
Westlaw typically load oral argument transcripts as soon as they are released
to the public — usually two to four weeks after the argument.
In Lexis's "United
States Supreme Court Transcripts" (GENFED;USTRAN) source, follow these
examples for docket number or case name searches:
number(05-608)
name(medimmune and genentech)
In Westlaw's
"Transcripts of U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments" (SCT-ORALARG) database,
follow these examples for docket number or case name searches:
dn(05-608)
title(medimmune and genentech)
Alderson Reporting
Company
Researchers may
also buy transcripts from Alderson
Reporting Company (202-289-2260 or 1-800-367-3376), the Court's official
reporter.
[Return
to Introduction]
New
Decisions
The "Supreme
Court Collection" at Cornell's Legal Information Institute
Cornell's Supreme
Court Collection provides same-day access to opinions. The e-mail
newsletter "liibulletin" (http://www.law.cornell.edu/focus/bulletins.html)
delivers syllabi of new decisions as soon as they are released.
Findlaw's "Supreme
Court Center"
Decisions
from the current term are available at the Supreme
Court Center the day they are decided.
Official Supreme
Court Site
The United
States Supreme Court site also offers same-day access to
Supreme Court opinions (though opinions are not loaded quite as rapidly
as they are by Lexis, Westlaw and Cornell).
Westlaw's Supreme
Court Reporter (SCT)
and Lexis's United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition (GENFED;USLED)
Lexis and Westlaw
have full-text Supreme Court opinions, memoranda and orders within 30 minutes
of their release. You can search for opinions by key word, docket number or
party name.
In Lexis's "United
States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition" (GENFED;USLED) source,
follow these examples for docket number or case name searches:
number(05-18)
name("arlington central school district" and murphy)
In WESTLAW's
"Supreme Court Reporter" (SCT) database, follow these examples for
docket number or case name searches:
dn(05-18)
title("arlington central school district" and murphy)
[Return
to Introduction]
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Zief Library's Legal Research Guides
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