United States Reports
Definition of United States Reports
Note: See a more comprehensive approach to the United States Reports legal concept in the American Law Encyclopedia
Record of cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. United States Reports is published by the Government Printing Office. Court opinions are first published as “slip opinions,” reports of individual decisions put out within a few days of the decision. Groups of slip opinions are then published in paperback form as “preliminary prints.” Hardbound volumes of United States Reports are released following the completion of each Court term. United States Reports includes summaries of the fact situations and what happened to the case in the lower courts. Also included is the full opinion of the Court for each case decided and all concurring and dissenting opinions that might have been issued. The first ninety volumes of the United States Reports were issued under the names of the Supreme Court reporters. These include Dallas, Cranch, Wheaton, Peters, Howard, Black, and Wallace. Cases may be located in these volumes by a citation that references volume and page. The citation for an early case like Marbury v. Madison is 1 Cranch 137 (1803). This means the case was decided in 1803 and can be found on page 137 of the first of the volumes under Cranch's name. Since 1874, the volumes have been numbered consecutively, beginning with volume 91, as United States Reports. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), is an example of a more recent citation.
See Also
Supreme Court Reporter (Law of the United States) United States Supreme Court reports (Law of the United States).
Resources
United States Reports Related Resources
- United States Reports in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
- Judicial Effects and Policies Keywords in the United States Legal Encyclopedia
- Judicial Policies Keywords in the International Legal Dictionary
Notes
- “United States Reports”, The American Law Dictionary, 1991, California
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