Hardcopy Sources

Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States
1^st floor (KF101.8 .K87). This set contains selected briefs and transcripts of oral arguments from "landmark" cases 1793 - date. They are arranged in chronological order. Case name tables are provided in each volume as well as a case name index to cases appearing in volumes 1-199 (1793-1990). Briefs are published in this set approximately 1-2 years following the decision.

Records and Briefs in Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States
Location: Basement (request at circulation desk)(no call number). Briefs from 1905-1917 are arranged by term and from 1917-1978 are arranged by the citation for the case in the United States Reports.

Some unbound briefs and records from 1979-date are in the library's storage area and are arranged by docket number. Place requests for these items at the circulation desk.

Microform Sources

Location: 1st floor, Room 140, except (1832-1896):

Records and Briefs
1832-1896 (microfilm): Storage (request at Circulation Desk). Arranged by U.S. Reports citation (v.1 - 167).
1897-1906 (microfiche): Storage (request at Circulation Desk). Arranged by U.S. Reports citation (v.168-206).
1974-date (microfiche): Drawers 7D - 9F. Arranged by docket number
Oral Argument Transcripts
1953 - date Mfiche KF101.9.C65 Complete Oral Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Note: This set does not include transcripts for many early cases (pre-1968) that were argued before the Supreme Court. This is because the Supreme Court Library's own collection of transcripts for the period between 1935 - 1968 consists of a random selection of cases and is not comprehensive. Consult the Supreme Court's Oral Arguments web page and click on the "Availability of Oral Argument Transcripts" link for more information.

MNCAT Search

Additional hardcopy and microform sources at the University of Minnesota may be located by searching the library's catalog MNCAT. Try an advanced search using the terms supreme court and briefs or supreme court and oral. This may uncover publications that reprint oral arguments and/or briefs for particular cases.

Electronic Sources

Records, Briefs & Oral Arguments
The Curiae Project
Currently (as of 4/05) in beta version, Project Curiae provides access to U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs, including links to oral arguments (as available from the Oyez Project) and links to case opinions available from the LII - Legal Information Institute and FindLaw. The Curiae Project is located at the Yale Law Library and is being developed in cooperation with the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Supreme Court Historical Society.
Briefs & Oral Arguments
LexisNexis (Access restricted to law students & law faculty only)
U.S. Supreme Court oral argument transcripts (library name: genfed file name: ustran). Coverage is from the Oct. 1, 1979 to present. U.S. Supreme Court Briefs from (library name: genfed file name: briefs). Coverage is from 1979 through current (update schedule: within 6 weeks of publication).
Briefs & Oral Arguments
LexisNexis Academic (Access from U of M campus. Off-campus access restricted to U of M affiliated users).
U.S. Supreme Court briefs and oral argument transcripts from January 1979 through current. Coverage is not comprehensive. Locate case opinion and click on links from opinion to access available briefs and oral argument transcripts.
Briefs & Oral Arguments
Westlaw (Access restricted to law students & law faculty only)
U.S. Supreme Court oral argument transcripts (database identifier: sct-oralarg). Coverage is from the 1990-91 term to present. U.S. Supreme Court briefs (database identifier: sct-brief). Merit Briefs coverage is from the 1990-91 term to present. Amicus Briefs coverage is from the 1995-96 term to present.
Briefs
United States Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832 - 1978
Document types include Appellant's Brief; Appellee's Brief; Application for Review; Application for Writ; Brief in Opposition; Brief of Real Party; Intervenor’s Brief; Jurisdictional Statement; Letter Brief; Opposition for Review; Oral Transcript; Petition; Petition for Rehearing; Petitioner’s Brief; Petition for Writ of Certiorari; Relator’s Brief; Supplement to Petition; Transcript; among other sources. Browse and full text searching capability are provided. Searches by specific keywords or phrases, author (counsel or organization), case name, court term year and document filing date, U.S. Reports citation number are available.
Briefs
Findlaw - Supreme Court Briefs
Briefs are arranged by term (starting with the 1999/2000 term) and alphabetically by first-party case name.
Briefs
Briefs of the Office of the Solicitor General
Includes briefs filed in all cases by the Solicitor General other than responses in "in forma pauperis" (IFP) cases. All briefs filed by the Solicitor General with the Supreme Court (except IFP cases) are available from July 1998. Selected merits briefs and responses are available as early as 1982. See web site for details of coverage, document format and search and browse options.
Oral Argument
Argument Transcripts (Supreme Court of the United States web site)
Arranged by term, argument session (starting with the 2000 term), docket number and case name.
Oral Argument
Oyez, U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia
Recordings of oral arguments from leading constitutional law cases. New recordings are added approximately 10 months following the Term in which the cases were argued in the Court. Coverage from 1955 to current (pre-1995 coverage is selective).

Additional Information & Assistance

Note: additional information on obtaining U.S. Supreme Court briefs and oral argument transcripts e.g. document retrieval services, can be found at the Supreme Court's web site.

Links verified 2/29/08

Table of Contents

Hardcopy Sources

Microform Sources

MNCAT Search

Electronic Sources

Additional Information & Assistance