POLS 4710 - Wilhelm: Supreme Court news and Law Journals

For analysis of the current docket, here are some good news sources.  Not all Supreme Court reporting is the same, and, due to its complexity, relying on the reporting from individuals with experience is useful.  Here are some sources with proven track records.

SCOTUS Blog

• Insightful Supreme Court information and commentary.
• Adds additional research to cases for context of issues.

Amicus

• Podcast by Slate's Dahlia Lithwick.

NPR's Nina Tottenberg

• Award winning legal affairs correspondent.

Cornell's Legal Information Institute

• Supreme Court Bulletin

On the Media:  Breaking News Consumer's Handbook (Supreme Court edition)

Law Journals are edited and published by law school students.  These articles are not scholarly research, but rather legal arguments made, with supporting documentation, about any number of topics touched by the three branches of government.  They can help crystalize existing arguments about a piece of doctrine or constitutional argument.

HeinOnline has the most law journals in one place.  Click on the link "Law Journal Library" in the right list to search just law journals.

If a case originates from a specific state or municipality, often newspapers from those regions will have more news reporting.  Access World News (see above) focuses on smaller, regional newspapers all across the US.

If there is a specific popular newspaper you want to search, we have a guide which lists how to access them here, including:

Washington Post access:

• In Factiva (1977-present)
• In Factiva (articles from Washington Post online, 2007-present)
• In ProQuest U.S. Newsstream (1996-present)
• Washington Post - digitized newspaper with full-page images in downloadable PDF format (2008-recent, latest 3 months not included)
• Washington Post (1877-2007) via ProQuest Historical Newspapers — every issue includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF format

Reading Supreme Court news sources has its own special difficulties.  On the Media has produced some helpful guidelines to remember when following the current docket.