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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FBI no longer treating an applicant’s experience with prostitution as automatic bar against hiring
The agency will now evaluate some applicants with a history of paying for sex on a case-by-case basis rather than disqualifying them outright.
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Nepal-China flood survivors reach safe areas as families await news of nearly 3,000 missing
Rescue crews continue evacuating survivors as families wait for word of loved ones still unaccounted for after devastating floods along the border.
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Colorado River plan to cut water amid drought brings uncertainty for cities and farmers
Communities dependent on the Colorado River face difficult choices as prolonged drought forces new limits on water use.
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Tens of thousands mourn King Harald V in Oslo as Norway enters a new royal era
Mourners gathered outside Oslo’s royal palace to leave flowers and tributes following the 89-year-old monarch’s death.
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Judge rules Trump admin cannot punish noncitizens for protected speech
"This downward spiral is antithetical to our Constitution that recognizes our right to speak freely," a San Francisco federal judge wrote in a case by international students who had their visas threatened.
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Honolulu City Council Chair barred from seeking third term
Tommy Waters had claimed a delay in the start of his original council term meant he could run a third time but was denied by the Hawaii Supreme Court.
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Judge orders feds to process visa applications in limbo
Three policies issued by federal agencies removing a pathway to a green card were ruled to cause irreparable harm to immigrants who already started an application this year.
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Big Bend National Park border construction paused under agreement with locals
Despite asking for an injunction, the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security left a federal courthouse Friday with an agreement and assurance that no wall will be built in Big Bend National Park.
Recent Supreme Court opinions
The judiciary in Congress
| Bill | Title | Latest action |
|---|---|---|
| HR 9497 | Water Resources Development Act of 2026 | Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 66 - 0.Jul 14, 2026 |
| HRES 1498 | In the matter of allegations relating to Representative Chuck Edwards. | Placed on the House Calendar, Calendar No. 87.Aug 3, 2026 |
| S 93 | Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2025 | Held at the desk.Sep 11, 2025 |
| S 278 | Kids Off Social Media Act | Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 108.Jun 30, 2025 |
| S 3348 | Dream Act of 2025 | Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (text: CR S8509-8512)Dec 4, 2025 |
| HR 10170 | Memory Chip Competitiveness Assessment Act of 2026 | Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.Aug 27, 2026 |
| HR 10152 | Open-Source AI Leadership Act | Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.Aug 27, 2026 |
| HR 10163 | American Quantum Competitiveness Act | Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.Aug 27, 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.