Legal Research Guide: United States Federal Law

The opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States are published officially in the United States Reports. See 28 U. S. C. §411. In addition to the Court’s opinions, a volume of the U. S. Reports usually contains a roster of Justices and officers of the Court during the Term; an allotment of Justices by circuit; announcements of Justices’ investitures and retirements; memorial proceedings for deceased Justices; a cumulative table of cases reported; orders in cases decided in summary fashion; reprints of amendments to the Supreme Court’s Rules and the various sets of Federal Rules of Procedure; a topical index; and a statistical table summarizing case activity for the past three Court Terms. Prior to final publication in the U. S. Reports, the Court releases soft-cover “preliminary prints” that contain the same materials and features as the U. S. Reports. Two or three preliminary prints will eventually be combined into a single bound U. S. Reports volume. Each preliminary print includes a volume number and a part number, e.g., Volume 577, Part 1.

The U. S. Reports volumes available for free download on this website consist of volumes 502 et seq., which covers the 1991 Term and subsequent Terms. Starting with the Court’s 2022 Term, PDFs of the U. S. Reports (in both preliminary print and bound volume format) will be posted to this website as they become available. PDFs of volumes not yet officially published and available for purchase from GPO will be posted bearing a “page proof” watermark.

Supreme Court Reporter Bound Volume set is a federal caselaw reporter series in West's® National Reporter System. This product covers opinions and decisions from 1882 to date issued by the United States Supreme Court. Cases published in this product series are enhanced with headnotes, Key Numbers, and synopses prepared by an internal staff of highly trained attorney editors.

Lexis's United States Supreme Court Reports (also called "Lawyer's Edition") is an unofficial reporter but contains the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States along with headnotes, summaries and annotations.

"Published" Federal Appeals Court Decisions

Decisions issued by U.S. circuit courts of appeals (the intermediate level of appeal in the federal system) that are selected for publication ("published") are published in the Federal Reporter. The first, second, and third series of the Federal Reporter are cited as "F.", "F.2d", and "F.3d", respectively. Published appellate court decisions are binding precedent on the district courts in that circuit.

"Unpublished" Federal Appeals Court Decisions

Decisions (from 2001 to date) issued by U.S. circuit courts of appeals that are not selected for publication in the Federal Reporter are published in the Federal Appendix. Unpublished federal appellate court decisions generally lack precedential value, but may be considered by courts as persuasive.

District Court Decisions

Occasionally, decisions issued by federal district courts (the trial court level in the federal system) are published in a reporter known as the Federal Supplement. The first, second, and third series are cited as “F. Supp.”, “F. Supp. 2d”, and "F. Supp. 3d". The Federal Supplement includes both decisions selected for publication ("published") and decisions not selected for publication ("unpublished"). Neither published nor unpublished district court decisions constitute binding precedent, but may be considered by courts as persuasive, with published district court decisions being viewed by courts as more persuasive than unpublished decisions.