Slip Opinions: Opinions are first issued as slip opinions. Then, "preliminary prints" of the United States Reports (the official case reporter of U.S. Supreme Court cases) are printed. About 3 years later, once the Court has made its final corrections, the United States Reports bound volumes are printed. The bound print volumes are located on the second floor and are available in PDF on the Supreme Court website.
As of April 2021, the most recent bound volume available on the Court's website is vol. 574, October Term, 2014.
See the Supreme Court's site for Information About Opinions.
The United States Reports is an official reporter and contains the final opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States. Preliminary Prints are available in print at the Reference Desk and online.
Location: BURNS (2ND FL)
- Sample citations: 531 U.S. 98 (2000) or 7 U.S. (3 Cranch) 73 (1805)*
*Early reports of U.S. Supreme Court decisions were named for the clerk who compiled them. U.S. Reports volumes include the content from these nominative reporters.
See the Supreme Court's site for information about the United States Reports.
West's Supreme Court Reporter is an unofficial reporter but contains the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States along with headnotes, Key Numbers, and synopses. PDF versions are available on Westlaw.
Location: BURNS (2ND FL)
Sample citation: 121 S.Ct. 525 (2000)
Lexis's United States Supreme Court Reports (also called "Lawyer's Edition") is an unofficial reporter but contains the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States along with headnotes, summaries and annotations.
Location: BURNS (2ND FL)
Sample citation: 148 L. Ed. 2d 388 (2000)
PDF copies of official reports from 1754 through current slip opinions. Also includes many historic treatises on Supreme Court history and practice. See HeinOnline's U.S. Supreme Court Library guide for more information.
U.S. Supreme Court Web Citations (UC Berkeley)UC Berkeley's project to preserve web resources cited by SCOTUS and prevent "link rot." The system "determines in near real-time when the Court publishes an opinion and promptly takes snapshots of the web pages it cites."
CourtListener databaseThe Free Law Project has scraped all the federal court opinions freely available on PACER and has posted them online at CourtListener.com.
