2.2.1 Federal Case Law Reporters
Description
This article is from the Legal Research FAQ, by Mark Eckenwiler with numerous contributions by others.
2.2.1 Federal Case Law Reporters
United States Reports (U.S.):
The official reporter for decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The actual opinion of the Court is preceded by a "syllabus," written
by a Court employee, summarizing the issues decided. The Syllabus is
not part of the opinion, and should be relied on only for a quick
overview of the case. The Supreme Court once rebuked a litigant for
carelessly quoting a Syllabus rather than the opinion it inaccurately
summarized. See _United States v. Detroit Lumber Co._, 200 U.S. 321,
337 (1906).
Supreme Court Reporter (S. Ct.):
The West Publishing reporter for the Supreme Court. In addition
to the Court's Opinion and the Syllabus, S. Ct. introduces each case
with a series of so-called "headnotes" distilling and categorizing
major legal conclusions in the opinion. (These headnotes, which are
created by West and are not part of the Opinion, are discussed at
length in section 4.1.2 on using the **Federal Practice Digest. All
West reporters, for federal or state courts at any level, attach
these headnotes to each case as a research tool.)
Lawyers Edition (L. Ed., L. Ed. 2d):
An alternative collection of Supreme Court decisions from the
private publisher Lawyers Cooperative. L. Ed. 2d is less widely
available in the United States than U.S. or S. Ct., although it
includes some useful features (such as summaries of the parties'
arguments) not found in the more common reporters. Note also: like
many reporters, Lawyers Edition has entered its "second series" (L.
Ed. 2d), which simply means that at some point the publisher wanted to
restart the volume numbers again at 1.
United States Law Week (U.S.L.W.):
A weekly looseleaf newsletter, published by the private Bureau of
National Affairs (BNA), reporting Supreme Court decisions (in addition
to summarizing important lower court decisions). USLW is the most
up-to-date hardcopy form of Court decisions, and includes excellent
indexes for determining the status of a pending case (or locating a
recent opinion) on the basis of party names, subject matter, or docket
number. (Note also that having the docket number will allow you to
obtain recent Supreme Court opinions via email. See section 6 below.)
Federal Reporter (F., F.2d, F.3d):
The West reporter covering decisions of the Circuit Courts of
Appeal. Like all West reporters, it includes headnotes before each case
as a research tool. There is no equivalent official reporter; this is
the only comprehensive printed source for Circuit Court opinions.
Note also that West just began (in late 1993) the third series of
this reporter (F.3d), which will contain all new cases for the indefinite
future. For the moment, though, F.2d is the repository of the bulk of
current Circuit-level law.
Federal Supplement (F. Supp.):
The primary West reporter reprinting decisions of the District
Courts. Unlike F.2d/F.3d, which includes almost all Circuit Court
decisions, F. Supp. represents only a fraction of the orders issued by
federal trial courts. (Unless the District Judge submits a copy of a
given decision to West -- usually done when s/he considers it
groundbreaking or useful as a guide to other courts -- it will not appear
in F. Supp.)
Instead of appearing in F. Supp., a decision may appear in one of
two specialized reporters, Federal Rules Decisions (F.R.D.) or Bankruptcy
Reporter (B.R.), if it relates to bankruptcy law or certain federal rules
of court. "Unpublished" decisions (i.e., those absent from the printed
reporters) can often be found on **Lexis and **Westlaw. There is no
official reporter for District Court opinions.
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