Tarlton Law Library: U.S. Supreme Court: Court History

Where to Look for Justices' Papers

Finding Aids

Federal Judicial Center's Biographical Directory of Federal Judges

Look up individual justice and then click "Research Collections" or "Oral History"

Ron Collins, Accessing the papers of Supreme Court Justices: Online & other resources, SCOTUSblog (Aug. 22, 2013, 10:28 AM).

Lee Epstein et al., Supreme Court Compendium, Table 5-11 (Reference: KF 8742 S86 2007)

Papers of Mark W. Cannon, administrative assistant for Chief Justice Warren Burger, are available at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library.

Tarlton Holdings

Selected Papers of John Jay: Catalog
Papers of John Marshall: E 302 M365
Salmon P. Chase Papers: E 415.6 C48 1993
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Papers: Micro-film KF 8745 H6 A4 1985
Louis Dembitz Brandeis Papers: Micro-film KF 8745 B67 A4 1985
Felix Frankfurter Papers: Micro-film KF 8745 F7 A4 1986
Justice Tom C. Clark papers: Tarlton archives

For further related materials, search the TALLONS catalog by subject for:

Judges -- United States -- Archives
Judges -- United States -- Correspondence
United States. Supreme Court -- Biography
United States. Supreme Court -- History
Can also do author search by justice for writings

UT's Harry Ransom Center Holdings

Joseph Story family papers: Papers from the family of Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845), mostly of Joseph's son, William Wetmore. The entire collection is 16 document boxes in size; Joseph's part fills a little less than two of those. Most of his writings are legal opinions or charges to juries, from both before and after he was named to the SC, but there is also a notebook of his poetry and some correspondence, mostly with his family.

Documentary Histories

Documentary History of the Supreme Court, 1789-1800: KF 8742 A45 D66 1985

Table of contents:
- Appointments and proceedings
- Commentaries on appointments and proceedings
- The justices on circuit, 1790-1794
- The justices on circuit, 1795-1800
- Organizing the federal judiciary: legislation and commentaries
- Suits against states
- Cases: 1790-1795

Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791: JK 1059 1st D6

Covers Congress that passed Judiciary Act of 1789

Congress and the Courts: A Legislative History: Documents and materials regarding the creation, structure and organization of the Federal Courts and the Federal Judiciary.

Further Resources

Brandeis and Harlan Watch blog: from the curator of the Louis D. Brandeis and John Marshall Harlan papers at the University of Louisville.
HeinOnline's U.S. Supreme Court Library: includes many historic works related to the Court.
History of the Supreme Court of the United States (Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise): KF 8742 A45 H55
- Ongoing multivolume history of the Court's development, published by Cambridge University Press
The Jackson List: Website of Professor John Q. Barrett, who is writing the biography of U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954).
Supreme Court Historical Society
Frye, Brian L., Justice John Marshall Harlan: Lectures on Constitutional Law, 1897-98 (February 10, 2012). Hofstra Univ. Legal Studies Research Paper. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2003116.

William T. Otto: The U.S. Supreme Court's First "Anonymous" Reporter, 1875-1883
Online exhibit from the Indiana Legal Archive about the history of US Supreme Court reporting of cases.
US Supreme Court's engrossed dockets, 1791-1995
From the National Archives.
Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792–2020
Largely digitized collection from the National Archives. Contains petitions for writs of error or certiorari to lower courts, writs of error or certiorari, transcripts of record from lower courts and amendments or supplements to them, exhibits, citations to appellees to appear in the Supreme Court, appeal bonds, assignments of error, agreements of counsel, briefs, depositions ordered to be taken by the Supreme Court as additional evidence, motions, orders, decrees, judgments, mandates, correspondence, and other papers.

Digital Collections on Justices

Digital Archive of the Papers of Harry A. Blackmun
Currently includes preliminary (pool) memoranda and docket sheets from Justices Blackmun's years on the Rehnquist Court (1986-1993 terms).
James Clark McReynolds
Justice from 1914 to 1941. From the University of Virginia Law Library.
John Davis Jr. Autograph Collection of U.S. Supreme Court Justices
From Washburn University Law Library.
John Marshall Family Bible
Chief Justice from 1801-1835. From William & Mary College of Law Library.
John Marshall Harlan Collection
Special collection from the University of Louisville Law Library.
Joseph Rucker and Clarinda Pendleton Lamar papers
Joseph Rucker Lamar was U.S. Supreme Justice from 1911 until his death in 1916.
Joseph Story Digital Suite
A digital collection of papers and more from Justice Story (1779-1845). From the Harvard Law Library.
Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Archives
Selected materials available online. From the Washington & Lee University Law Library.
Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Papers
Includes the noted Powell Memorandum: Attack On American Free Enterprise System and selected Supreme Court Case Files. From the Washington & Lee University Law Library.
Louis D. Brandeis Collection
Special collection from the University of Louisville Law Library.
Louis D. Brandeis Papers: Ruthenberg v. Michigan
Papers relating to 1920s First Amendment case.
NARA Records Pertaining to Elena Kagan
Records from Justice Kagan's time at the Clinton White House.
NARA Records Pertaining to John Roberts
Records from Chief Justice Roberts time at the Department of Justice and in the Reagan White House.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Digital Suite
Search over 100,000 digitized documents and over 1,000 images from multiple collections from a single access point. From the Harvard Law Library.
Papers of John Jay
First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, from 1789-1795. From Columbia University Libraries.
Papers of Tom C. Clark
Digital collection from papers archived at the Tarlton Law Library. Justice from 1949-1967.
Robert Burke Supreme Court Autograph Collection
From Oklahoma City University Library.
Robert H. Jackson Center
Justice from 1941 until 1954.
Sandra Day O’Connor Digital Library and Policy Archives
From the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. Includes opinions, legislative record, interviews and speeches, and publications.
Supreme Court Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg
Papers include: records of his opinions as well as other comments, notes, and correspondence by him and the other justices. Justice from 1962-1965. From Northwestern Law School.
Thomas Johnson Letters
Justice from 1792-1793. From Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage.
United States Supreme Court: Portraits and Autographs
Online exhibit featuring some of the notable portraits and documents available in the United States Supreme Court: Portraits and Autographs collection at the University of Chicago D'Angelo Law Library.

Digital Collections on Supreme Court Cases

SCOTUS Notes
Volunteer project in which members of the general public will transcribe more than 25,000 pages of Supreme Court conference notes that have been digitized from archives at a variety of sites including the Library of Congress, Washington and Lee Law School, and Yale Law School.
Amistad Case
1841 Supreme Court case. From the National Archives.
Arizona v. California
Contains pleadings, briefs, orders, transcripts, and reports from Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546 (1963), involving rights to the use of Colorado River basin water. From UC Boulder Law Library.
Boutilier v. INS
1967 decision that upheld deportation of a Canadian citizen and U.S. permanent resident classified by INS as “afflicted with psychopathic personality” based on his homosexuality.
Brown v. Board of Education: Documents
From the National Archives. 1954 Supreme Court case.
Brown v. Board of Education: Order of Argument
From the National Archives. 1954 Supreme Court case.
Brown v. Board of Education: Photographic Exhibits
From the National Archives. 1954 Supreme Court case.
Brown v. Board of Education
From the University of Michigan Library. 2004 archive with four main areas: Supreme Court cases; busing and school integration efforts in northern urban areas; school integration in the Ann Arbor Public School District; and resegregation trends in American schools.
Dred Scott:150th Anniversary
1857 Supreme Court case. Online exhibit with links to various digital materials, from the Missouri State Archives, St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Revised Dred Scott Case Collection
1857 Supreme Court case. From the Missouri State Archives, St. Louis Circuit Court Historical Records Project, and Washington University in St. Louis.
Gideon v. Wainwright: oral interviews
From Georgetown University Law Library.
Grovey v. Townsend
1935 case that held Democratic Party of Texas private rule banning blacks from voting in primary elections was constitutional.
Hollingsworth v. Perry materials
From the Stanford Law Library.
California Proposition 8 case: petitioners (the original “Defendant-Intervenors”) ask the Court to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion in Perry v. Brown, (671 F.3d 1052), which affirmed the district court’s determination that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional (Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 704 F. Supp. 2d 921).
Holmes v. Walton
From the New Jersey Digital Legal Library. Holmes v. Walton (N.J. Supreme Court, 1780) is believed to be the earliest case in the United States in which a court held a statute unconstitutional. This digital collection presents a chronology of the case, transcriptions of the primary sources, a bibliography of the scholarly treatments, and passages from later citing cases.
In re Gault Research Portal
1967 juvenile justice decision, from Georgetown University Law Library.
Lawrence v. Texas
Consists of the briefs and amici curiae from the Fourteenth Texas Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. From the South Texas College of Law Digital Collections.
Lloyd L. Gaines Collection
A digital collection from the University of Missouri School of Law about the 1938 Supreme Court case, State of Missouri ex rel Gaines v. Canada, on racial discrimination regarding admission to law school.
Petition to Decision Website
Digital archive of papers on civil rights litigation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, tracing behind-the-scenes progress of cases in the Court’s chambers. From Prof. David Achtenberg of UMKC School of Law.
Roe v. Wade
State of Texas files from Roe v. Wade case, courtesy of author Karen Blumenthal.
Louis D. Brandeis Papers: Ruthenberg v. Michigan
Papers relating to 1920s First Amendment case.
Sheppard v. Maxwell
The Sam Sheppard case materials were donated to the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. In the early morning hours of July 4, 1954, Marilyn Sheppard was bludgeoned to death in her bed. Her husband stood trial and was convicted for his wife’s murder amidst a media storm. The media frenzy so tainted his case that the United States Supreme Court released him and ordered a retrial in the decision Sheppard v. Maxwell.
Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma
332 U.S. 631 (1948) case from Oklahoma dealing with racial discrimination in admission to law school.
Sweatt v. Painter Archive
From Professor Thomas D. Russell, from the University of Denver School of Law.
United States v. Mississippi Interrogatory Answers Collection
From the 1965 voting rights case (380 U.S. 128).
Voices of American Law
Includes court documents and opinions, articles, interviews, and photographs related to selected Supreme Court cases.

Additional Research Guides

Bennett Boskey, Justices and Their Law Clerks, 14 Green Bag 25 (2010).
Includes a bibliography of writings about Justice Stone by his former law clerks.
Brown v. Board of Education: A Selected Annotated Bibliography
William H. Manz, 96 Law Library Journal 245 (2004).
Dates of Early Supreme Court Decisions and Arguments: United States Reports Volumes 2 - 107 (1791 – 1882)
Prepared by Anne Ashmore, Library, Supreme Court of the United States, August 2006.
Elaine Race Massacre: Bibliography of Briefs and Records
From the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Library. Guide to legal actions stemming from 1919 race massacre, including Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U.S. 86 (1923), and Hicks v. Dempsey, 261 U.S. 86 (1923).
Federal Judicial Center's Guide to Research in Federal Judicial History (Ch. 3 on S. Ct.)
Fisher v. University of Texas guide
From the Tarlton Law Library.
Guide to Websites on Brown v. Board of Education
From the University of Washington.
Harvard Law School Alumnae/i Who Became Justices
Indigent Criminal Defense Research Guide
Focuses on Gideon v. Wainwright. From the Georgetown Law Library.
Justice Joseph P. Bradley's Docket Books and Law Books at Rutgers-Newark
Rutgers University’s Library for the Center for Law and Justice, in Newark, New Jersey, holds the personal docket books of Joseph P. Bradley (Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1870 to 1892), as well as a substantial portion of his law library. Part I of this article provides a physical description of the docket books, reports particular annotations of interest in them, and assesses the extent to which the information they contain is available elsewhere. Part II discusses the size and composition of Bradley’s law library and describes selected works that include manuscript material. Appendices include numerical data on appeal cases.
List of Works relating to the Supreme Court of the United States
From 1909.
NARA's Reference Information Paper on Brown v. Board of Education
Describes selected holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that relate to or assist in the understanding of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision.
Skinner v. Switzer guide
From the Tarlton Law Library.
Sweatt v. Painter guide
From the Tarlton Law Library.
Taft Court Research Guide
From the Yale Law Library.

Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery has developed ANC Explorer, a website and mobile app, to explore Arlington's rich history, including viewing the gravesites of the following Supreme Court justices: Black, Blackmun, Brennan, Burger, Douglas, Goldberg, Holmes, Marshall, Rehnquist, Stewart, and Warren.

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