Beginning with the October 2006 Term, the Court has made the transcripts of oral arguments available free to the public on its website,
www.supremecourt.gov, on the same day an argument is heard by the Supreme Court. (Heritage Reporting Corporation has provided transcripts for the Court beginning in October Term 2017; prior to that Term, Alderson Reporting Corporation provided the transcripts.) Same-day transcripts are considered official but subject to final review. These and earlier Terms’ transcripts are permanently archived on this website. Transcripts for oral arguments prior to October Term 2000 have been scanned from the Supreme Court Library collection. Please disregard any stray or handwritten markings on these copies.
Bound copies of individual transcripts from October Term 2017 are available for purchase through Heritage Reporting Corporation at (202) 628-4888, or
www.hrccourtreporters.com. Persons wishing to purchase bound copies of individual transcripts prior to the 2017 Term should contact the reporting company listed on the title page of the individual transcript or check the resources listed below.
After Heritage Reporting Corporation completes an oral argument transcript and provides copies to the Court it is sent to Westlaw and Lexis Advance and added to their collection. Westlaw’s collection includes oral argument transcripts since 1990, which subscribers can access through the Westlaw database.1 Lexis Advance includes all oral argument transcripts since the beginning of the October 1979 Term. Subscribers to Lexis Advance can access these documents at the top menu box by typing United States Supreme Court Transcripts in the Lexis search box.2
Heritage Reporting Corporation delivers electronic copies of the oral argument transcripts to the Court and these are made available to the public on the Court’s website.3 In addition, copies of the current transcripts are added to the Library’s records and briefs collection and print copies are available in the Library. The Library’s collection contains the transcripts of every oral argument since the beginning of the 1968 Term and a selection of transcripts from oral arguments before the 1968 Term. The Library also has a collection of records and briefs from 1832 to the present.
Beginning with the October Term 2010, the audio recordings of all oral arguments heard by the Supreme Court of the United States are available free to the public on the Court’s website, www.supremecourt.gov. The audio recordings are posted on Fridays at the end of each argument week.
The public may either download the audio files or listen to the recordings on the Court’s website. The audio recordings may be accessed by clicking on the “Oral Arguments” prompt on the home page, and selecting “Argument Audio.” The recordings will be listed by case name, the docket number, and the date of oral argument, and are available in three formats. The recordings will also be accessible by clicking on “What’s New” on the site’s home page.
The Archives’ collection contains audio recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments from 1955 through the immediately preceding October Term. Members of the public can listen to or make their own copies of oral argument recordings using their own tape recorders, blank tapes, and patch cords at the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch. Copies of recordings can also be purchased from the Archives.4 To listen to or purchase a copy of a recording, the Archives asks that individuals requesting recordings provide the case title, Supreme Court case number, and date of the oral argument. Although no formal appointment is required to listen to recordings, the Archives recommends that individuals interested in retrieving copies make sure the Archives has a “reference copy” of the particular argument they are looking for prior to visiting the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch.
Many recordings of oral arguments are also available on the Oyez Project website.5 This website allows access to more than 5,000 hours of audio in mp3 format. The cases cover a wide range of time periods and areas of constitutional law and are digitized from actual copies of the official argument tapes held by the National Archives. To access arguments through the website, click on “Cases” on the homepage to search by title, citation, subject, or date.
Many Supreme Court oral argument recordings and/or transcripts are also available in the published multi-volume set, Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States: Constitutional Law, edited by Professors Gerald Gunther and Gerhard Casper.6 The volumes in this set contain oral argument transcripts and all written briefs submitted to the Court (including amicus curiae briefs) for major cases in constitutional law that were considered “landmark” cases by the editors. This set is also available at various law libraries.7
Oral argument collections are also available on microfiche. Proquest produces a microfiche collection called Oral Arguments of the U.S. Supreme Court. This collection includes oral argument transcripts from the 1953 Term to the present and can be purchased from Proquest, which sells microfiches only by Term (not by individual argument).8 The collection can also be found at various law libraries.
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APPENDIX TO TRANSCRIPTS AND RECORDINGS OF ORAL ARGUMENTS
PRINTED TRANSCRIPTS:
Heritage Reporting Corporation
1220 L Street, NW, Suite 206
Washington, DC 20005-4018
Phone: (202) 628-4888
Fax: (202) 371-0935
Website: www.hrccourtreporters.com
E-mail: contracts@hrccourtreporters.com
Alderson Reporting Company, Inc.
Attn: Transcript Order
1111 14th Street, NW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20005-5650
Phone: (202) 289-2260 or (800) 367-3376
Fax: (202) 289-2221or (800) 367-3310
Website: www.aldersonreporting.com (to purchase, click “Order Supreme Court Transcripts”)
E-mail: www.info@aldersonreporting.com
The National Archives (Old Military and Civil Branch)
National Archives Records and Administration
7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenues, NW
Washington, DC 20408
Phone: (202) 357-5000
Website: www.archives.gov/dc-metro/washington
United States Supreme Court Library
One First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20543
Website: www.supremecourt.gov
ELECTRONIC TRANSCRIPTS:
Thomson Reuters Westlaw
Phone: (844) 246-7910 (sales)
Website: http://next.westlaw.com
LexisNexis
Phone: 800-888-AT-LEXIS (sales)
Website: https://advance.lexis.com
U.S. Supreme Court
Website: https://www.supremecourt.gov
Click on “Oral Arguments”
Click on “Argument Transcripts”
ORAL ARGUMENT RECORDINGS:
National Archives
Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch
National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Phone: (301) 837-2000
Website: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park
The Oyez Project - Unofficial
Website: http://oyez.org/
COLLECTIONS OF ORAL ARGUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE:
PRINT
ProQuest
789 E. Eisenhower Parkway
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Phone: (334) 303-7217
Website www.proquest.com
MICROFILM/MICROFICHE
Oral Arguments of the U.S. Supreme Court
Proquest
789 E. Eisenhower Parkway
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: 1-800-521-0600 or 734-761-4700
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1 Westlaw can be searched by subscribers at: http://next.westlaw.com.
2 Lexis Advance can be searched by subscribers at: https://advance.lexis.com.
3 The Supreme Court website is at https://www.supremecourt.gov (click first on Oral Arguments and then click on
“Argument Transcripts”).
4 To obtain recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments through the National Archives contact the National Archives Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch, National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. The Branch can be reached by phone at (301) 837-2000. The website is located at: https://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park.
5 The address for the Oyez Project website is http://oyez.org/
6 To order: Contact Proquest 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway Ann Arbor, MI 48108. Call 1-800-521-0600 or 734-761-4700.
7 To locate in a law library search for the title in WorldCat at: http://www.worldcat.org.
8 For more information about the microfiche collection: Contact Proquest 789 E. Eisenhower Parkway Ann Arbor, MI 48108. Call 1-800-521-0600 or 734-761-4700. To locate in a law library search for the title in WorldCat at: http://www.worldcat.org.