This blog post was authored by Tina GheenChief of the Digital Resources Division of the Law Library of Congress.
A new collection, the United States Supreme Court Records and Briefsis now available on the law.gov website.
The Law Library of Congress Records and Briefs collection is made up of the briefs and transcripts of records (or joint appendices) submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal from federal courts and state appellate courts. The Law Library is currently engaged in a multi-year project to digitize over 27,000 bound volumes spanning 1832-2012. These volumes contain an estimated 405,000 records and briefs documents.
Briefs are written legal arguments submitted by the parties and third-party amicus curiae filers, and records are pleadings, motions, transcripts, and opinions from lower courts. Most briefs fall in the Appellate Docketthe regular docket of cases appealed from lower federal courts or state courts. Alternatively, the Original Docket consists of the small number of cases in which the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under the Constitution is invoked. Lastly, the Miscellaneous Docket consists of cases identical to the appellate docket in substance, but the petitioner has filed the appeal “in forma pauperis,” which means that they cannot afford to pay for the filing fees or the printing of the brief.
These materials are significant, especially for researchers conducting historical research on cases, issues, and the evolution of Supreme Court briefs. They can also provide insight into legal arguments presented to the Court and the resulting decisions the Court has made. The opinions authored by the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are published in the United States Reportswhich is a series of bound case reporters.
Collection materials are organized at the case-level and are linked to the United States Reports collection on loc.gov. The documents are also keyword searchable. As additional materials become digitized, we will add them to the website. A special thanks to the Digital Content Management Section and the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Library of Congress for their continued help in developing the online presentation for the collection.
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Source: blogs.loc.gov
