Free Resources

There are multiple ways users can search for judicial documents in GovInfo, such as hovering over the "Browse" tab at the top left corner of the page and selecting "A-Z," then "United States Reports." This will redirect you to the Library of Congress, which keeps the United States Reports (the official reports of the Supreme Court) back to 1754 in their collection. Users can also go back to the "Browse" tab, select "Category," then "Judicial Publications." There you will find "United States Courts Opinions," where GovInfo keeps a collection of U.S. Appellate, District, and Bankruptcy Court opinions dating back to 2004.

One last way to find these resources is to go to "Browse," then "Author." Users will find 3 broad categories made up of the three branches of government, with Judicial being on the far right. Here, GovInfo lists authors including the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, and more. See below for a small section of the list. 

As briefly mentioned, the Library of Congress keeps digital copies of the United States Reports. Users can do a simple keyword search using the search bar, or, they could select the "Digital Collections" tab. After that, they can look to the left side of the screen for the filters, where they will see "Government, Law & Politics."  You can look through the collections that the Library of Congress has to offer, but to find the United States Reports, select "Law Library of Congress" in the "Part of" filter. This will redirect users to a page that contains the legal collections within the Library of Congress. If you scroll down, you can find "United States Reports (Official Opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court)." (This is obviously a much more complicated way to find resources but it does allow users to see everything that is accessible through the Library of Congress.) 

Users can also find use the Federal Court Finder at USCourts.gov to find the website for various federal courts, which will often keep court opinions on their site. They can also go to the National Center for State Courts, where they can find a list of State court websites.

Users can use Oyez, a multimedia archive that provides access to all of the Supreme Court's audio since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. This source offers users transcript-synchronized and searchable audio, plain-English summaries, and illustrated decision information and opinions. Users can select "Cases" and then the specific case of interest to access a synopsis of the case a link to the oral argument, as well as all of the information previously mentioned.