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Finding Supreme Court cases in Westlaw:

• Westlaw has Supreme Court decisions back to the beginning of the Court in 1789.
• If you have a pop-up blocker, disable it or click on Continue to Campus Research when the pop-up screen appears.
• You will need a PIN to access Westlaw from off-campus:

When you enter Westlaw, click on the LAW tab to get to the proper search screen:


There are 3 ways to search, illustrated in the image below:

1. By case citation (most precise) OR
2. By case name OR
3. By subject + select Supreme Court Cases. Remember to put quotation marks around search phrases (e.g. "fair use")


Unless you searched by citation, you will receive multiple results. For help determining which result is the case you want, see this tip about why are there so many cases with the same name and which one do I want?.
• Cornell 's Supreme Court page
  1990+, selected historic cases.
• FindLaw
  Supreme Court cases from 1893+. Requires registration to view results
• GPO Access's Judicial Branch Resources
  Supreme Court cases 1937-75 and 1992-2000.
• Justia
  Supreme Court cases from 1789-present
• Public Library of Law
  Supreme Court cases from 1892-present. Registration required to view results.

Finding other Federal Court cases:

• Westlaw has Court of Appeals cases from 1891-present.
  Click on the LAW tab to get to the proper search screen.
  You will need a PIN to access Westlaw from off-campus.
  There are 3 ways to search, illustrated in the image above:

  1. By case citation (most precise) Please remember that 2d and 3d are crucial parts of the citation OR

  2. By case name OR

  3. By subject + select All Federal Cases. Remember to put quotation marks around search phrases (e.g. "fair use ")

• Findlaw
  Dates covered varies by circuit. Second Circuit 1995-present. Registration required to view results.
• Justia
  Court of Appeals cases 1950-present.
• Public Library of Law
  Dates covered vary by Circuit. Registration required to view results.
• Second Circuit Court of Appeals

District Court (F.Supp.). NOTE: The state of Connecticut is one District:

• Westlaw has District Court cases 1789-present. Remember to click on the LAW tab to get to the proper search screen. You will need a PIN to access Westlaw from off-campus.
  There are 3 ways to search, illustrated in the image above:

  1. By case citation (most precise) OR

  2. By case name OR

  3. By subject + select All Federal Court Cases. Remember to put quotation marks around search phrases (e.g. "pretty woman")

• FindLaw
  Dates covered vary. Connecticut 2000+. Registration required to view results.
• Justia
  Cases 2004-present.
• U.S. District Court websites sometimes provide access to decisions