U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs: Online sources for Supreme Court briefs

This database from Gale contains nearly 11 million pages of records and briefs brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in the period 1832-1978.

Supreme Court materials for argued cases starting in 1933 that includes opinions, briefs, dockets, oral arguments, and joint appendices. Also includes briefs from paid cases from 1975 forward in which the petition for writ of certiorari (PWC) was denied.

Includes selected coverage for briefs beginning 1930, petitions beginning 1985, and joint appendices beginning 1982.

Includes selected coverage for merits and amicus briefs, petitions, and joint appendices beginning 1979 (with a few briefs from 1936-1978). All merits and amicus briefs are available for cases granted certiorari after 1993-1994 term, and all petitions are available for cases granted certiorari after 1999-2000 term.

Includes selected coverage from 1935 until 2017.

Current briefs. A source for the latest documents, this site provides access to petitioner and respondent merits briefs. Briefs are accessed by case name or argument date. This is the site the Supreme Court references with its link on-line MERITS BRIEFS.

Part of the SCOTUSblog, users will find petition-stage documents for cases selected by the SCOTUSblog publisher that he believes have a chance to be granted cert. It currently covers from the October 2006 Term forward. This can be a useful source for difficult-to-find cert petitions.

Recent and archived briefs. This site provides access to briefs filed by the Solicitor General. Coverage includes all briefs (except responses to in forma pauperis petitions) filed 1998 Term to present and selected briefs filed 1982-1996. The briefs can be searched or browsed by keyword, type or subject. HTML and PDF versions are available.

Selected briefs, 1999-2007. Access to briefs is by term of oral argument and then alphabetically by case name.

The Supreme Court website has additional information on accessing briefs.

A guideline published by the Supreme Court for attorneys arguing before the Court that includes sections devoted to briefs and the joint appendix.