The Supreme Court Database · 1946–2023
Explore the U.S. Supreme Court through data, cases, and voting patterns.
Search and filter Supreme Court decisions by term, issue area, chief-justice era, vote split, and outcome — now alongside a daily-refreshed pool of legal news, recent opinions, and judiciary activity.
The Court right now
A daily-refreshed pool of legal news, recent opinions, and judiciary activity — an independent aggregation of public data, baked into the page at build time.
Latest legal & Supreme Court news
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University of Hawaii officials win personal immunity after professor criticized Black History event
A law professor claims the school violated his First Amendment rights by disciplining him after he spoke out about the university's lack of Black representation during Black History Month.
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An immigration law error in the court’s asylum decision threatens immigration courts
The Supreme Court’s decision last week blocking migrants stopped at the international boundary from applying for asylum turns on the text of federal immigration law. But the majority opinion reveals that the justices don’t understand the b…
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After Slaughter and Cook: future Fed fights, and maybe some midnight firings
Ninety-one years ago, when the Supreme Court held in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States that Congress could make agencies like the Federal Trade Commission “independent” from total presidential control, many were shocked – including Pres…
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New York trip scandal triggers biggest political crisis yet for Argentina’s Milei
Manuel Adorni, one of the president's top aides, recently resigned after a whirlwind of corruption scandals, undermining the libertarian promises of beating the political caste.
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June jobs report misses big, while unemployment falls
The economy added less than half the number of jobs expected last month and saw fewer gains in April in May than first reported.
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What we learned about the court this term: an animated explainer
This animated explainer, the third in a series of animated videos done in partnership with Briefly, guides you through which justices dominated this term, which judicial alliances mattered most, and whether the court's so-called ideologica…
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The Stat Pack is back
Jake S. Truscott and Adam Feldman crunched the numbers from the 2025-26 term and pulled together key takeaways.
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Unexpected guest: Bat spoils vacation
RENO, Nev. — A family is suing the Nugget Hotel Casino Resort for negligence after a live bat was found in their hotel room. The family says hotel staff captured and released the bat before it was tested for rabies, which resulted in them…
The judiciary in Congress
| Bill | Title | Latest action |
|---|---|---|
| HR 8787 | Servicemember Payment Data Privacy and Security Act | Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.May 13, 2026 |
| HR 9079 | TRUST Act | Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.May 29, 2026 |
| HR 8884 | Removing Barriers to Work for Disabled Americans Act | Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 1398 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 8800, H.R. 8595, H.R. 8884 and H. Res. 1383. The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 8800 and H.R. 8595 under a structured rule, and H.R. 8884 and H. Res. 1383 under a closed rule. The resolution provides for one hour of general debate on each measure and one motion to recommit on H.R. 8800, H.R. 8595, and H.R. 8884.Jun 30, 2026 |
| HR 8732 | Pensions for Retired Uniformed Servicemembers Act | Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.May 11, 2026 |
| HRES 1377 | Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1181) to prohibit payment card networks and covered entities from requiring the use of or assigning merchant category codes that distinguish a firearms retailer from general-merchandise retailer or sporting-goods retailer, and for other purposes; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 9022) making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027, and for other purposes; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 8595) making appropriations for national security, Department of State, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2027, and for other purposes; and providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 9237) to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, and other Federal laws, to improve benefits for veterans and the administration of the Department of Veterans Affairs. | Placed on the House Calendar, Calendar No. 82.Jun 23, 2026 |
| HRES 1383 | Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the Working Families Tax Cuts. | Rule H. Res. 1398 failed passage of House.Jun 30, 2026 |
| HR 8686 | To amend the Military Land Withdrawals Act of 2013 to withdraw and reserve certain public land in the vicinity of Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. | Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Unanimous Consent.Jun 10, 2026 |
| S 1383 | Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of 2025 | Considered by Senate (Message from the House considered). (consideration: CR S1647)Mar 26, 2026 |
Judicial nominations
Economic context
Broad national indicators that form the economic backdrop to many economic-activity and labor cases. Provided for context only.
Case explorer
Search 9,277 decisions by name, citation, or docket — then filter by term, issue, vote split, or outcome.
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| Case | Vote | Issue area | Winner |
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Trends & patterns
How the Court's caseload, vote splits, and issue focus have shifted since 1946.
Cases decided per term
5-4 decisions over time
Majority-size distribution
Issue areas by decade
Petitioner vs. respondent win rate
Decision direction by term
Justices
Voting patterns, tenure, and participation for justices serving since 1946.
Justice voting-profile comparison (top 20 by case count)
Understanding the data
Key concepts for interpreting Supreme Court decisions and vote data.
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What is a 5-4 decision?
A 5-4 decision is the narrowest possible majority on a nine-member Court: five justices one way, four in dissent. These cases are often the most contentious and consequential. Since 1946, roughly 20% of decided cases have been 5-4 splits.
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What is the Supreme Court Database?
The Supreme Court Database (SCDB), maintained at Washington University in St. Louis, is the most widely used academic dataset of Court decisions. It encodes every orally argued case since 1946 with over 200 variables. This site uses SCDB as its primary structured data source.
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Issue areas & vote splits
SCDB classifies cases into 14 issue areas such as Criminal Procedure, Civil Rights, First Amendment, and Economic Activity. Vote splits (9-0, 7-2, 5-4) describe how many justices joined the majority versus the dissent.
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Decision direction
SCDB codes each decision as "conservative," "liberal," or "unspecifiable" per conventional legal-political categories. These labels reflect scholarly coding conventions — not the justices’ self-identification — and are most useful for longitudinal trend analysis.
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How current terms compare
The Roberts Court (2005–present) decides fewer cases per term than earlier eras — roughly 60–70, versus 130+ under the Burger Court — but a larger share involve closely divided votes.
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Petitioner vs. respondent
The petitioner asks the Court to review a lower-court decision; the respondent defends it. Historically, petitioners win more often — the Court tends to grant review when it suspects error below.
Methodology & sources
Primary data source
The Supreme Court Database (SCDB), version 2024 Release 01, is the core structured dataset — maintained by Harold J. Spaeth, Lee Epstein, and collaborators at Washington University in St. Louis. It covers all orally argued cases from the 1946 through 2023 terms. scdb.wustl.edu
Live sources
The “Court right now” section aggregates public data refreshed daily: legal-news RSS feeds (SCOTUSblog, Justia Verdict, Empirical SCOTUS, Courthouse News), recent Supreme Court opinions via CourtListener / the Free Law Project, judiciary bills and nominations via Congress.gov, and broad economic indicators via FRED. Every block links back to its source. See the data overview and DATA_SOURCES.md for why each source is relevant and how failures degrade gracefully.
Supplementary sources
- SupremeCourt.gov — docket lookup and official opinion PDFs.
- Free Law Project / CourtListener — bulk case data and opinion text.
- Justia — public opinion text and case summaries.
- Caselaw Access Project — Harvard Law Library's digitization of U.S. case law.
Field definitions
- Term
- The October Term year in which the case was decided.
- Issue area
- One of 14 SCDB categories such as Criminal Procedure or Civil Rights.
- Vote split
- The majority-minority vote count (e.g., 5-4), from majVotes and minVotes.
- Decision direction
- Coded conservative, liberal, or unspecifiable per SCDB conventions.
- Winning party
- Whether the petitioner or respondent prevailed, from partyWinning.
Limitations
- SCDB covers orally argued cases from 1946 onward; per curiam and pre-1946 cases are excluded.
- Issue-area and direction codes involve editorial judgment; reasonable scholars may disagree.
- Live feeds reflect their upstream sources at fetch time and may lag or omit items.