Resource Review: Court Listener

by Dan Brackmann, Guest Author

Court Listener is a free website that archives a number of different types of legal information. Some of these, such as court opinions and PACER documents, are also available from other sources. However,  other information collected on the site is more interesting. For example, the site hosts a database of publicly-available biographical information on judges, federal and a handful of states, both current and historical.  See it at: https://www.courtlistener.com/.

screenshot from courtlistener.com showing the South Carolina Federal judges for whom biographical information is available

The really fascinating archive contains audio recordings of oral arguments from the Supreme Court (since 2013), all of the Federal Circuit courts that provide it, plus a few state jurisdictions. The site supports a podcast function for enthusiasts who want to listen to court audio that way. In total, the archive holds over 1,700 days worth of audio files with over 160 new files added in the last ten days alone.

screenshot from courtlistener.com showing the names of cases where the oral argument audio file has recently been uploaded