United States Supreme Court Databases

(compiled by Harold J. Spaeth)

United States Courts of Appeals Databases

Includes the following separate datasets:

	The Original Courts of Appeals Database (compiled by Donald R. Songer)
	Update to the Courts of Appeals Data (compiled by Ashlyn K. Kuersten and Susan B. Haire)
	Shepardizing the Courts of Appeals (compiled by Rorie Spill Solberg)

Attributes of United States Federal Court Judges

(originally compiled by Gary Zuk, Deborah J. Barrow, and Gerard Gryski; extended by Gerard Gryski and Gary Zuk)

National High Courts Databases

(compiled by Stacia L. Haynie, Reginald S. Sheehan, Donald R. Songer, and C. Neal Tate)

The Institutional History of the U.S. District Courts

(compiled by Gerard Gryski, Gary Zuk, and Sheldon Goldman)

Digital Archive of the Papers of Harry A. Blackmun

(compiled by Lee Epstein, Jeffrey A. Segal, and Harold J. Spaeth; archived at Northwestern University)

 

Lower Federal Court Confirmation Database, 1977-2004

(compiled by Wendy L. Martinek; archived at the Center on Democratic Performance at Binghamton University)

The Lower Federal Confirmation Database contains information on nominations to Article III district and circuit courts from the beginning of 1977 through the end of December, 2004. The original database was created at the behest of the Constitution Project's Courts Initiative (formerly Citizens for Independent Courts) by Wendy L. Martinek, Binghamton University. This is the most recent update to that original database. Based on the feedback provided by users of the original database, the database has been split into two files: one containing the data related to senatorial processing of nominations, and one containing the data related to presidential processing of nominations. All documentation is provided in Adobe pdf format.

 

Merged Phase I and Phase II Supreme Court Database

(compiled by Vanessa A. Baird; archived at the University of Colorado)

Pursuant to her book on Supreme Court decision making, Dr. Vanessa A. Baird of the University of Colorado, has merged the Phase I (compiled by Harold J. Spaeth) and Phase II (compiled by James L. Gibson) Supreme Court Databases into a single file. Additionally, Professor Baird includes other data such as measures of salience and ideology in the merged file. Users of these data should provide the following reference: "The data were compiled from a variety of sources funded by the National Science Foundation by Vanessa A. Baird at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and were distributed through the Department of Political Science at the University of Colorado. Neither NSF nor the original collectors of the data bear any responsibility for the analysis provided here."

 

State Supreme Court Database

(compiled by Paul Brace and Melinda Gann Hall; archived at Rice University)

 

U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Curiae Database, 1946-2001

(compiled by Paul Collins; archived at the University of North Texas)

The U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Curiae Database, 1946-2001 contains data on amicus curiae briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court's orally argued cases from 1946-2001. This database contains a wealth of information on amicus curiae participation in the U.S. Supreme Court, including the number of amicus briefs filed for the petitioner, respondent, and those failing to identify their preferred disposition; the number of amicus briefs advocating for the liberal and conservative positions; as well as data on the amicus curiae activity on the U.S. Solicitor General. The data are in Stata 10.0 format, compressed in a ZIP file. The data folder also contains the data and do files necessary to replicate the statistical analyses published in Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making (Collins 2008). The data on amicus curiae briefs filed from 1946-1995 were collected primarily by Kearney and Merrill (2000). The data on amicus curiae briefs from 1995-2001, in addition to those cases missing from the Kearney and Merrill (2000) database, were collected by Collins. If you use these data, please cite the following:

	Collins, Paul M., Jr. 2008. Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
	Kearney, Joseph D. and Thomas W. Merrill. 2000. "The Influence of Amicus Curiae Briefs on the Supreme Court." University of Pennsylvania Law Review 148(3): 743-853.

 

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Database

(compiled by Lee Epstein, Thomas G. Walker, Nancy Staudt, Scott Hendrickson, and Jason Roberts; archived at Northwestern University)

This is a multi-user, public database containing a wealth of information on individuals nominated (whether confirmed or not) to the U.S. Supreme Court. Specifically, the database houses 263 variables, falling roughly into five categories: identifiers, background characteristics and personal attributes, nomination and confirmation, service on the Court, and departures from the bench. These data are available from the website of Lee Epstein, the Beatrice Kuhn Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the Northwestern University School of Law.