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Legal Research Tutorial

Module 2: Finding Case Law

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Searching Supreme Court Cases by Keyword

Let us try a sample Supreme Court search on presidential elections using the following steps:

• Using the Terms and Connectors option. Type in the phrase presidential elections in the search box
• Under Select Sources, choose U.S. Supreme Court Cases, Lawyer's Edition
• Then, move down to the line with Specify Date. Notice that it defaults to "All available dates".
• Click on the arrow to reveal the various date ranges available. By choosing "Date is" you can search by a specific month, day and year or a specific month and year.
• Now click the button

Your search should yield a list of results sorted by the date the case was decided, with the most recent case listed first.  

Click on the link for the case title you want to view. Let's click on Bush v. Gore.

This is what you will see in an example of a typical federal case record.

The default view in Lexis Nexis is a view of the Case Summary. This gives you an overview of the case, the outcome and core terms, or keywords assigned to the case

To find out the names of the parties involved, you will need to scroll to the top of the page.

• Names of the parties involved in the suit [George W. Bush and Richard Cheney vs. Albert Gore, Jr. et al.]
• A listing of various ways the case is cited by such services as LexisNexis, Westlaw, Bureau of National Affairs, etc. Example: 531 U.S. 98; 121 S. Ct. 525; 148 L. Ed. 2d 388; 2000 U.S. LEXIS 8430; 69 U.S.L.W. 4029; 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Service 9879; 2000; Colo. J. C.A.R. 6606; 14 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 26
• The date the case was decided [December 12, 2000]

To find the decision and the summary, you will need to scroll down past the LexisNexis® Head Notes

• The decision, ex. Violation of equal protection clause of Federal Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment held to have occurred with respect to Florida Supreme Court's ordering manual recount of state's results in 2000 Presidential election.
• Summary

• Counsel (naming the lawyers making the case before the Supreme Court)
• Judges (listing which justices agreed and which dissented from the majority opinion)
• Opinion (here delivered Per Curiam, i.e. "by the whole court," and by Chief Justice Rehnquist for himself and for Justices Scalia and Thomas)

• Dissent(s) (here delivered by Justice Stevens for himself and for Justices Ginsburg and Breyer)

Footnotes will be interspersed within the text. They frequently provide important points about the justice's reasoning for the opinion, and often cite the precedent set in previous cases in support of their argument.

Footnotes may contain references to the following (which can be obtained in LexisNexis Academic for further research)

• Legal Briefs, i.e., "Document containing brief statement of facts of case, issues and arguments; used most commonly on appeal, but also used at trial level (trial brief) when requested by trial judge" (Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, 893).
• Statutes, i.e. the public laws of the United States, ex. U.S. Const., Art. II, § 1.
• Prior cases that set precedents in favor of the justice's opinion, ex. McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U.S. 1, 35, 36 L. Ed. 869, 13 S. Ct. 3 (1892).

At the top, right hand side of the screen under Next Steps  you will find icons, that you can use to print  , email , download , or export your results to RefWorks.

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