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Supreme Court
The Supreme Court was established as the highest court in the land by the Constitution. It is the last court of appeal for civil and criminal cases, and it rules on the constitutionality of the laws passed by state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Ben's Guide has this good basic overview of the Court's functions and responsibilities.
The official Supreme Court site is the place to go for background information such as justice biographies, historical material, and schedules. They also make current opinions available as well as a few years of historical opinions.
Larger databases of opinions, as well as other Supreme Court-related information, are available from these sources:
- Findlaw: Supreme Court casesopinions back to 1893, searchable by citation, case title, and full text
- Hein Online - U.S. Supreme Court Library"Complete coverage of the official U.S. Reports bound volumes as well as preliminary prints, slip opinions, and books and periodicals related to the U.S. Supreme Court"
- Legal Information Institute (Cornell Univ. Law School)recent decisions plus a database of historically important decisions
- Oyez ProjectA multimedia archive of Supreme Court cases from 1955 to the present; also information on past and current Supreme Court Justices of the United States.
- Supreme Court Nominations Hearings1971-present. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- US Government ManualUnder the "Judicial" section, you'll find detailed information about the various components of the federal court system
A useful reference encyclopedia, in the Library on the first floor:
- Supreme Court Drama. KF4550.Z9 B73 2001. Summaries and background information on famous cases.
Other Federal Courts
The federal judiciary includes some specialized courts in addition to those discussed in the other boxes on this page. These include Bankruptcy Courts, Tax Courts, Court of International Trade, and others.
- US Court OpinionsOpinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. Various dates.
- USCourts.govlinks to all federal courts, information about each one, and general information about the judicial process
- About Federal Courts - United States Courts
- Federal Judicial Centereducational resources and results of several decades of research on the judicial system
Cases and decisions from courts below the Courts of Appeals are often difficult to find online.
Remember that the Law Library has printed case law resources, as well as access to online collections not available in the Blume Library. Consult a Law Librarian for assistance.
You may also obtain some information directly from the courts. Use the Court Locator (see map at left) for contact information for the various federal courts.
- Findlaw: Cases & CodesIncludes some Courts of Appeals cases; for some districts, summaries of cases are available,Coverage of 5th Court of Appeals cases (which includes Texas) goes back to 1995.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline is Hein's premier online product, with more than 70 million pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline bridges the gap in legal history by providing comprehensive coverage from the inception of more than 1,600 law and law-related periodicals.
Focuses on law journals, case law, and government documents.
Some United States collections include the Congressional Record, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, and parts of the Serial Set. Other notable collections are the US state collections, Canon law materials, international treaties and agreements, English legal materials, and United Nations legal materials.
Databases by Category: Canadian Content, Case Law, Current Content Journals, International Resources, International Treaties and Agreements, U.K. Content, U.S. Federal Content, U.S. State Content
Learn more about this resource at: https://lib.stmarytx.edu/HeinOnline - Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Includes local, regional, national, and international newspapers, as well as non-English language news; business information about US and international companies; federal, state, and international legal materials including case law, media transcripts, and more.
Nexis Uni features more than 17,000 news, business, and legal sources—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790.
US Courts of Appeals & District Courts
The heirarchy of federal courts proceeds down from the Supreme Court to Courts of Appeals, which cover multi-state regions, and then to District Courts, which cover states or portions of states.
The map below shows the geographical boundaries of the federal court system. Below the map are links to other resources.
- US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuitthis is Texas' federal appeals court; headquarters is in New Orleans
- US District Court: Western District of Texasthis is San Antonio's district
- USCourts.gov: Federal Courtslinks to all federal courts