Are you a fan of the inimitable Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Or, perhaps you have some other supreme crush. Regardless, you now have new ways to see the important work of the Supreme Court through the Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs 1832-1978 database. Do an author search for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or find her in the Author Browse list and you will find her first appearance in the Supreme Court records all the way back in 1971 when she was one of five attorneys for the appellant in Reed (Sally) v. Reed (Cecil). If you are looking for a topic closer to home, try exploring Thurgood Marshall, or dive into the documents to discover why a search for Johns Hopkins University pulls up documents from the landmark Brown v. Board case.
With basic and advanced search options, you can search through over 350,000 discrete documents encompassing approximately 11 million pages of Supreme Court records. The majority of these 150,000 Supreme Court cases did not receive a full opinion. In addition to keywords, authors, and cases, you can search by date—included date range, filing date, or opinion date, whether or not a case was heard, document typed, and either docket number or U.S. reports citation.
For students and scholars of race, gender, law, public policy, history, business, education, environment, or nearly any other field, U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs 1832-1978 is a source not to be missed.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also highlight that U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs 1832-1978 joins the Sheridan Libraries’ Making of Modern Law collections Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 and Primary Sources, 1620-1926.
Next month, Focus Features Films will release a new drama film on Ginsburg entitled “On the Basis of Sex.” The cast includes Felicity Jones as Ginsburg, and Armie Hammer (Martin Ginsburg), Justin Theroux, Jack Reynor, Cailee Spaeny, Sam Waterston and Kathy Bates.