Website: Judicial Branch Publications: How to Find Federal Court Opinions

Overview

Finding a published opinion with a known citation can be relatively straightforward with access to free and commercial resources. Finding opinions on a particular topic can be more challenging, especially using free online sources only. Coverage in free collections varies, and most free sites do not offer sophisticated finding aids and search tools, relying on keyword searching and browsing. when looking for opinions on a topic, preliminary research using secondary sources is recommended. See for information on using and accessing law reviews, treatises, and more, see the guide to Secondary Sources.

Free Online Sources

Google Scholar
US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923 and US Supreme Court cases since 1791. It is the most comprehensive free source of federal district court opinions.
Caselaw Access Project
Official, book-published federal and state case law.
CourtListener
Free access to as many court opinions and dockets as possible. See coverage page for jurisdictions and date ranges.
Justia
Supreme Court opinions from 1759, Courts of Appeals opinions as published in the Federal Reporter from 1924. District Court opinions as published in the Federal Reporter from 1924-1932 and the Federal Supplement from 1933.
United States Courts Opinions
A collection, on GPO's govinfo, of digitally authenticated opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. Includes opinions starting in 2004, but earlier years may be incomplete. Does not include opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court.
FindLaw
U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1760 and Courts of Appeals opinions from the mid-1990s. Also includes case summaries of published opinions from the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals since 2000. FindLaw is owner by Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Westlaw.
Opinions - Supreme Court of the U.S.
Current slip opinions and PDFs of the bound volumes of U.S. Reports from 1991.
United States Reports
PDFs of the print United States Reports from 1754 to 2004, from the Law Library of Congress. Organized by volume, authoring justice, and major case topic.
Public Library of Law
U.S. Supreme Court opinions from 1754, and Courts of Appeals opinions from 1950 (with some exceptions). Sponsored by Fastcase.
Cornell Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court opinions from 1990, plus 600 historically significant opinions from 1804 to 1991.
United States Courts
The official website of the federal court system. Use the court locator to find a specific court. Includes rules, forms, statistics, and current and historical information.
Law Library of Congress Guide to Law Online: How to Find Free Case Law Online
Links to collections of free court opinions.

Commercial Online Sources

Westlaw Campus Research, Fastcase, and HeinOnline are UW Restricted database. Bloomberg Law, Lexis Advance, and WestlawNext are available to users with individual passwords. For more information, see Access to Bloomberg Law, Lexis Advance & WestlawNext.

Westlaw Campus Research
Comprehensive federal and state legal research database: case law, statutes, regulations, legal encyclopedias, and other secondary sources. Access for all on-campus; UW login required from off-campus.
Fastcase
Legal research database of federal and state cases, statutes, regulations, constitutions, court rules, and some Tribal Court decisions. Includes Washington State Bar Association Deskbooks.
Fastcase via HeinOnline
Access to the federal and state cases on Fastcase via the HeinOnline platform.
HeinOnline U.S. Supreme Court Library
U.S. Reports from 1754, plus slip opinions.
HeinOnline Early American Case Law
Federal Reporter from 1880-1924 and much more.

Print Sources

See Court Reporters - U.S. (Federal) for information on the call numbers, locations, and dates of coverage of print reporters in the Gallagher Law Library collection.