The United States Supreme Court

• Jurisdiction
• Supreme Court Justices
• The Judicial Process in the Supreme Court
• Citation of a Supreme Court Opinion
• Sources of Supreme Court Opinions

The Supreme Court of the United States has ultimate judicial authority within the United States to interpret and decide questions of federal law.

A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed, but Congress has the option of passing new or revised legislation or seeking an amendment to the Constitution in response to a ruling from the  Court. The Court itself may later overturn an earlier ruling.

The Supreme Court is the only court required by the United States Constitution. All other federal courts have been created by Congress.

Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court hears disputes involving

• The Constitution
• Federal laws
• Treaties of the United States
• Foreign diplomats
• U.S. citizens of different states
• Cases in which the United States is a party

Occasionally the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction (that is, it serves as a trial court rather than an appellate court). Few of these sorts of cases are ever filed. The Constitution gives the Supreme Court authority to try the following types of cases: 

• Disputes between two states 
• Disputes between a state and the federal government
• Actions by a state against a citizen of another state or country 
• Cases brought by or against a foreign ambassador or consul

Most of the work of the Supreme Court consists of hearing appeals of decisions from state supreme courts or from lower federal courts.

Its jurisdiction is limited by Article III of the U.S. Constitution to cases and controversies involving a federal question.

Cases and controversies: The court cannot issue advisory opinions, answer hypothetical questions about the law, or rule on the constitutionality of laws that have not been challenged in specific, real-life situations. It can only issue an opinion on an issue when a specific case involving that issue has been brought before it.

Federal question: Decisions appealed from the state supreme courts may only be reviewed by the United States Supreme Court if they involve a question of federal law—i.e., the interpretation and application of the U.S. Constitution, acts of Congress, or U.S. treaties. If a case involves only issues of state law, the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to review it.

Cases reach the Supreme Court in three ways:

Mandatory jurisdiction: The Supreme Court is required by law to review all cases that fit the following categories:

• Appeals from federal court decisions holding federal statutes unconstitutional
• Appeals from U.S. appellate court decisions holding state statutes unconstitutional
• Appeals from state court decisions holding federal laws unconstitutional
• Appeals from state court decisions sustaining state laws against a charge of federal unconstitutionality
• Appeals from decisions of certain three-judge district court panels that hear cases involving apportionment of congressional districts and certain voting practices

Certiorari Jurisdiction: The Supreme Court is not required to review every eligible case appealed to it. In most cases, an appellant who wishes to have a case reviewed by the Supreme Court must first file a petition for a writ of certiorari (cert petition for short).

A writ of certiorari (sir-shore-AH-ree, Latin meaning “to be informed”) is a written order from the Supreme Court commanding a lower court to submit the records of a particular case for review. Out of thousands of cert petitions submitted each year, the Supreme Court only grants about a hundred. Cases most likely to be heard are those with at least one of the following characteristics:

• A legal question was decided differently by two lower courts and needs resolution by a higher court
• A lower court decision conflicts with an existing Supreme Court ruling
• There is a controversy over important constitutional or other legal issues, with a social significance beyond the interests of the two parties involved

Sometimes you will see the expression “cert denied” in a legal publication, particularly in compilations of Supreme Court decisions. This means that a case was appealed to the Supreme Court, but the petition for a writ of certiorari was denied; that is, the Supreme Court declined to review the case. If a cert petition is denied, the lower court’s decision stands. This does not mean that the Court approves of the lower court’s decision—only that for whatever reason, the Supreme Court chose not to review the merits of the case.

Certification: In this seldom-used process, a lower court, such as the U.S. Court of Appeals, seeks instructions on a specific legal issue that has cropped up in a civil or criminal case.

Supreme Court Justices

A judge who sits on the U.S. Supreme Court is called a justice. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices.

Whenever a position on the Supreme Court becomes vacant, the President who happens to be in office nominates a new justice. The nomination must then be confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate before the new appointee can take office. The Library of Congress Web site offers links to numerous Web Resources relating to Supreme Court nominations.

Once appointed, a Supreme Court justice serves for life or until he or she chooses to retire. A Supreme Court justice cannot be removed from office except by impeachment, and a justice’s salary cannot ever be reduced.

Current Justices

The current justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are:

Chief Justice

John Glover Roberts, Jr.  (Appointed Chief Justice by George W. Bush, 2005) 
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Associate Justices (Listed in order of appointment)

John Paul Stevens (Appointed by Ford, 1975)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Antonin Scalia (Appointed by Reagan, 1986)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Anthony McLeod Kennedy (Appointed by Reagan, 1988)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

David Hackett Souter (Appointed by Bush, 1990)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Clarence Thomas (Appointed by Bush, 1991)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings, Pt.1 | Pt.2|Pt.3|Pt.4|Pt.4 errata

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Appointed by Clinton, 1993)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Stephen G. Breyer (Appointed by Clinton, 1994)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Samuel A. Alito, Jr. (Appointed by Bush, 2006)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Retired Supreme Court Justice

Sandra Day O'Connor (Appointed by Reagan, 1981)
Biography | Selected Opinions | Bibliography | Nomination Hearings

Chronology of Recent Events in the Supreme Court

July 1, 2005

Justice O’Connor announced her retirement, to be effective upon the confirmation of her successor.

July 19, 2005

President George W. Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to succeed Justice O’Connor. For resources related to the nomination of John G. Roberts for Chief Justice, see Supreme Court Hearings – John G. Roberts from the Library of Congress Web site.

September 3, 2005

Chief Justice Rehnquist died, leaving another vacancy. President Bush changed John Roberts’ nomination to be for Chief Justice and said he would nominate O'Connor’s successor later.

September 29, 2005

John Roberts was confirmed and sworn in as Chief Justice.

October 3, 2005

President Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Ellan Miers to replace O'Connor. For resources related to the nomination of Miers for Supreme Court Justice, see Supreme Court Nominations – Harriet Ellan Miers from the Library of Congress Web site.

October 27, 2005

Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court.

October 31, 2005

President Bush nominated Circuit Court Judge Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. For resources related to the nomination of Samuel Alito for Supreme Court Justice, see Supreme Court Nominations – Samuel A. Alito from the Library of Congress Web site.

January 31, 2006

Samuel Alito was confirmed and sworn in as Chief Justice.

Information About Supreme Court Justices

Members of the Supreme Court of the United States (infoplease)

All the Supreme Court justices who have ever served, listed in order of appointment. Includes data such as years they served, birth and death dates, and religion. Some of the names are linked to brief biographies and related articles.

Supreme Court Justices (FindLaw)

Pictures and biographical information for all current and a few former Supreme Court justices.

Researching The Court: The Supreme Court Justices (Supreme Court Historical Society)

Annotated list of readily available or unique resources that one may find particularly useful when looking for commonly asked questions about the Supreme Court’s members, work, and history.

The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1993 (Congressional Quarterly)
Located in Third Floor Reference, Call Number KF8744 .S86 1993

In-depth biographies on all the Supreme Court justices from John Jay through Clarence Thomas, presented in order of appointment. Unbiased, easy-to-read profiles describe each justice’s background, formative experiences, career, and the major issues and cases on which they passed judgment.

Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary (Facts on File Library of American History)
Located in Third Floor Reference, Call Number KF8744 .H35 2001

The brief essays chronologically arranged describe the personal, educational, and political backgrounds of Supreme Court Justices and the major opinions he or she has written. Includes overview of how the Court operates and its history as well as a glossary of legal terms, a chronology of significant related events, and bibliographies of general materials, individual justices, and particular cases or subjects.

Nomination Hearings: Supreme Court justices are appointed by the president, but their appointment must be confirmed by the Senate to become effective. Senate nomination hearings are a good source of information about what they did before they were appointed.

Paper copies of nomination hearings for the current justices are on reserve at the Government Documents Service Desk. Supreme Court Nomination Hearings (1971–forward) are available online from GPO Access. The Library of Congress Web site offers links to numerous Web Resources relating to Supreme Court nominations.

Supreme Court Nominations - Confirmed (Library of Congress)

Collections of Senate floor debates, votes, hearing transcripts and Senate statements related to the confirmation of each of the justices sitting on the current Supreme Court as of September 3, 2005. Retrospective files of past justices are to be added later.

Supreme Court Nominations – Not Confirmed (Library of Congress)

Collections of Senate floor debates, votes, hearing transcripts and Senate statements related to four Supreme Court nominees who were not confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Supreme Court Nominations – John G. Roberts (Library of Congress)

Extensive collection of materials related to the nomination of John G. Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Includes a bibliography of articles and books by Roberts, full text of opinions authored by Roberts, text and audio recordings of cases argued by Roberts before the Supreme Court, citations to cases Roberts was involved in as Deputy Solicitor General, full text of hearings on Roberts’ nomination as a federal judge, and other resources related to nomination hearings in general.

The following general works include biographical information on the justices:

The Supreme Court A to Z(Congressional Quarterly)
Located at Documents Service Desk, Call Number KF8742 .A35 S8 1998

More than 300 alphabetically arranged essays discussing the workings, justices, and significant decisions of the Supreme Court.

Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court
Located at Documents Service Desk, Call Number KF8742 .W567 1997

Two-volume encyclopedic history of the Court. Includes brief biographies of the justices, chronology of major decisions, chronological table of natural courts, list of acts declared unconstitutional, full text of key decisions.

The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments (Lee Epstein et al.)
Located in Third Floor Reference, Call Number KF8742 .S914 2003

One volume collection of statistics and other data on all aspects of the US Supreme Court, including its characteristics and those of the justices, the environment in which it operates, and the public’s views of its decisions and perceptions about the Court itself.

The Judicial Process in the Supreme Court

The court usually hears between one to three cases each day, on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. The Court’s term begins, by law, the first Monday in October of each year and continues as long as the business before the Court requires, which is usually until about the end of June.

The United States Law Week (Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.), Available on Third Floor Willis Library, Call Number KF90 .U65, contains a journal of proceedings of the Supreme Court, a summary of orders of the Court, cases docketed and summary of cases recently filed, a calendar of hearings scheduled, and special articles on the Supreme Court’s work.

1. Petitions: Each year, the Supreme Court receives 7,000 or so petitions for writs of certiorari. The Court also receives another 1,200 applications of various kinds each year that can be acted upon by a single Justice. The Court’s law clerks sift through the petitions and settle upon a select few that they deem worthy of consideration by the justices. Inside a closed conference room, the Chief Justice leads a meeting in which the Justices discuss the petitions and vote aloud on which cases they find more significant and deserving of deliberation. Voting begins with the Chief Justice and is followed by the associate justices according to seniority. To be considered, a case must receive at least four votes. The most junior Justice (the one most recently appointed) takes the handwritten notes to a clerk for public announcement of their disposition of the petitions
2. Schedule: Once the Court accepts a petition, it then schedules the case for oral arguments.
   

   Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases, available at the Government Documents Service Desk under Call Number KF4547.8 .P7, provides summaries of pending Supreme Court cases and is published monthly while the court is in session.

3. Briefs: Before presenting their oral arguments, the lawyers for each side will submit a legal brief summarizing the facts of the case and the legal reasoning behind their arguments and citing authorities in support of their positions. A party who is not directly involved in the case but has a strong interest in the outcome may submit an amicus curiae brief. (Amicus curiae is Latin for friend of the court.)
   

   FindLaw has briefs from the October 1999 term forward, in PDF and HTML formats.

   LexisNexis Academic has briefs for all cases that have been argued from January 1979 to the present. Briefs are all available within six weeks after arguments. Select "Legal Research"/"Federal Caselaw"; in "Court" dropdown menu, select "Supreme Court Briefs."

4. Oral Arguments: Oral arguments are presented to the Court before the public—anyone may sit in as an audience member. All Supreme Court cases are heard en banc (i.e., before the full Court) rather than in smaller panels, and at least six of the nine justices must be present to hear a case. One lawyer from each side presents a 30 minute argument, followed by intense questioning—including hypothetical inquiries—from the seated Justices. Questioning can be directed toward the lawyer or toward another Justice to bolster or sway opinions.
   

   A selection of these oral arguments can be accessed online through Northwestern University’s multimedia Oyez project, where they are delivered via streaming video. Argument Transcripts are posted on the Supreme Court Web site within 10-15 business days after the close of the argument session.

5. Vote: After oral arguments, the Justices will vote. Sometimes more than one round of voting will take place because the Justices may switch sides during the process, often turning a minority into a majority and vice versa. The first vote on a case is taken during the week of oral arguments. If the arguments take place on Monday, the Justices will vote on the case on Wednesday afternoon. If the arguments take place on Tuesday or Wednesday, the Justices will vote on Friday.
6. Opinions: After the vote, the justices write their opinions. The most senior Justice in the majority assigns the task of writing the majority opinion, also known as the Opinion of the Court. This will explain the court’s decision in the case and will usually include a statement of the facts in the case, points of law that were brought up, and the process of reasoning through which the court arrived at the final decision. The majority opinion is usually signed by its author, but sometimes the court will issue a per curiam (i.e., unsigned) opinion, particularly if it summarily reverses a lower court’s decision without full briefing or oral argument. (Per curiam is Latin for by the court.) The most senior justice in the minority also decides who will write the dissenting opinion, which will be published along with the majority opinion although it does not affect the outcome of the case. Sometimes a judge will agree with the outcome of the majority opinion, but might disagree with some aspect of that opinion or might have reached the same opinion through a different line of reasoning. This will be explained in a concurring opinion published along with the majority opinion. About half the cases accepted by the Supreme Court are decided quickly and informally, without any oral arguments or formal written opinions. If the decision of the court is unanimous and follows an already well-established legal principle, it will be issued as a memorandum opinion, which consists of a brief statement without elaboration on the facts or reasons behind it. The clerks of the court are involved throughout the opinion-writing process, researching past cases that may support a ruling and even strategizing to sway opinions in one direction or another.
   

   Historical Note: Originally every justice would write a separate opinion, even if they agreed with each other, and each opinion would be published. The practice of issuing a single “Opinion of the Court” was started in the early nineteenth century, while John Marshall was Chief Justice.

7. Publication: Each year the court decides about 150 cases of great national importance and interest, and about three-fourths of those decisions are announced in fully published opinions. The published version of the majority opinion is usually preceded by a syllabus, or concise summary of the facts of the case and of the decision, prepared by the reporter of the decision. This is not considered part of the court’s official opinion.

Citation of a Supreme Court Opinion

The citation to a Supreme Court opinion includes the following elements:

• Names of the parties, with the party appealing the lower court’s decision listed first
• Volume number of the reporter in which the opinion has been published
• Abbreviated title of the reporter
• Page number where the opinion begins
• The year the case was decided

Sometimes, if a reference is to a specific page in the opinion, the page number of the specific material cited will be included after the page number where the opinion begins. This is known as a pinpoint citation.

Example:

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 118 (1973).

This is a citation to the case of Roe et al. versus Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County, which appears in volume 410 of the United States Reports. The case begins on page 113. The specific passage being cited is on page 118. The case was decided in 1973.

In addition to the official U.S. Reports, there are several unofficial reporters that contain Supreme Court opinions. These are the most commonly used, with their abbreviations:

• Supreme Court Reporter (S.Ct.)
• U.S. Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer’s Edition (L.Ed.)
• U.S. Law Week (U.S.L.W.)

Sources of Supreme Court Opinions

Online Sources

Supreme Court of the United States: Opinions

This is the official Web site of the Supreme Court. It includes opinions from 2000 to the present.

LexisNexis Academic
Available to members of the UNT community
Select “Legal Research,” then “Federal Caselaw.”

Includes all Supreme Court opinions from 1790 to the present.

Supreme Court Collection (LII—Cornell)

Database of opinions from 1990 to the present, searchable by topic, author of the opinion, party name, and keyword. Also includes selected older opinions of historical importance.

Supreme Court Opinions (Findlaw)

Database of opinions from 1893 to the present, browseable by year or U.S. Reports volume number; searchable by citation, case title, or full text.

FLITE (FedWorld)

Full text of 7,407 U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from 1937 to 1975. Decisions are available as ASCII text files that can be read on your browser’s screen or saved to your hard drive and accessed by using most word processor programs. Can be searched by case name or keyword.

OYEZ: Supreme Court Multimedia (Northwestern U.)

This online archive provides access to more than 2000 hours of Supreme Court audio. All audio in the Court recorded since 1995 is included in the project. Before 1995, the audio collection is selective. Browse by case name, justice, or topic, or search by keyword.

USCC+ (InfoSynthesis, Inc.)

Database of Supreme Court opinions from 1834 to the present. Indexed by topic. Can be searched by keyword. Includes extensive hypertext linking between cases.

Official Sources

United States Reports
Located in Government Documents under Call Number 6.8:

Bound issues of Supreme Court opinions from 1790 to the present. Because of delays in publishing this series, the latest volume has cases that are about 2–3 years old. For newer opinions, see the advance sheets and the preprints.

United States Reports (advance sheets)
Located in Government Documents under Call Number 6.8/A:

Recent Supreme Court decisions are published as advance sheets. These are thick, paperbound pamphlets containing several cases together, in exactly the same format and page numbering that will be used in the bound volumes of the United States Reports when they become available. Advance sheets are a way of providing decisions in a timely manner without waiting for enough decisions to accumulate to justify an entire volume.

United States Reports (slip opinions)
Located in Government Documents under Call Number 6.8/B:

Shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court case is decided, the decision is published as an individual pamphlet called a slip opinion. A few months later, these slip opinions will be replaced by advance sheets. A few years after that, the advance sheets will be replaced by the permanent, bound volumes.

Annotated Sources

Supreme Court Reporter (West)
Located on Third Floor Willis under Call Number KF101 .S9

This commercially published series includes everything in the U.S. Reports, plus annotations and headnotes that analyze the legal issues decided in the case and list other cases on the same topics. It doesn’t include opinions issued before 1882, but the recent opinions are often available before the official version is issued.

U.S. Supreme Court Reports, Lawyer’s Edition(Lawyer’s Co-Operative) Located on Third Floor Willis under Call Number KF101 .U53 (1790–Jan. 1993)

This commercially published series includes all Supreme Court opinions from 1790 to the present, plus a summary of each case, and headnotes that analyze the legal issues decided in the case and list other cases on the same topics. For selected cases, it includes summaries of briefs submitted and essays written by the editorial staff in an appendix to each bound volume. Advance sheets do not contain annotations.

The UNT Libraries dropped the subscription to the paper version of the Lawyer’s Edition in 1993, but the entire set is available online to members of the UNT community through LexisNexis Academic. Select “Legal Research,” “Federal Case Law,” then within the pull-down menu for “Court,” make sure “Supreme Court” is selected.

U.S. Law Week (BNA)
Issues for 1985–present available on Third Floor Willis under Call Number KF90 .U65

This weekly commercial publication is the first place where a new Supreme Court opinion will appear in print. It tracks both current and upcoming decisions, reprints the full text of recent opinions, and summarizes court orders, recently filed cases, and arguments in important cases. It also provides coverage of significant legal news.

Summaries of Historic Supreme Court Decisions

The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation
Available at Government Documents Service Desk under Serial Set Number 14152.

Includes tables of federal, state, and local laws held unconstitutional, overruled Supreme Court decisions, and unratified proposed amendments to the Constitution.

Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia (Routledge)
Available at the Government Documents Service Desk, under Call Number KF385 .A4 J64 2001

Scholarly essays on 201 historical U.S. court cases. Each essay includes a summary of the case, an in-depth analysis, and a bibliography. Cases are arranged by general subject area and are indexed by case name, personal name, and specific subject.

The Supreme Court A to Z (Congressional Quarterly)
Located at Documents Service Desk, Call Number KF8742 .A35 S8 1998

More than 300 alphabetically arranged essays discussing the workings, justices, and significant decisions of the Supreme Court

Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court
Located at Documents Service Desk, Call Number KF8742 .W567 1997

Two-volume encyclopedic history of the Court. Includes brief biographies of the justices, chronology of major decisions, chronological table of natural courts, list of acts declared unconstitutional, full text of key decisions. 

The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments (Lee Epstein et al.)
Located in Third Floor Reference, Call Number KF8742 .S914 2003

One volume collection of statistics and other data on all aspects of the US Supreme Court, including its characteristics and those of the justices, the environment in which it operates, and the public’s views of its decisions and perceptions about the Court itself.