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Quick Summary

With more than 100,000 cases — more than 240,000 documents — The Making Of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 offers the most complete, digital collection of Supreme Court cases for this time period. The 140 years of court history serves the needs of:

• Researchers in American legal history
• Students of American history, politics, society and government
• Practicing attorneys

Researchers will have access to some of the most-studied and talked-about cases, including many landmark decisions whose study is an essential part of American law, politics and history with pivotal participants and rulings becoming part of our daily vocabulary.

A brief introduction
What is a brief and why is it important in the study of law and history? A brief is a lawyer’s written statement of his or her case, including the factual and legal arguments upon which it rests. United States appellate courts usually require a brief to be filed for the information of the judge and the opposing party. Occasionally a brief may include considerable historical, economic and sociological data, such as in the brief presented by the plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which argued that racially segregated schools provided unequal education. As can be expected, the presentation of the brief in American appellate practice underwent considerable change during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, yet as a written record it remains as essential research source.

By presenting the background and context of the cases presented to the high court, U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs contains essential primary source material on the major topics in American history. These include:

• The interpretation of the constitution and its amendments
• Judicial review and the role of the courts in American history
• States’ rights and national sovereignty
• The institution of slavery
• Settling of the western territories
• Government’s role in war and peace
• Free enterprise
• Banking and commerce
• Big business and organized labor
• Discrimination and modern civil liberties
• Intellectual property and technology
• Environmental history and the public’s health
• Evolving nature of race, gender, faith and identity

U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs brings together a primary source component that scholars traditionally depend upon in order to answer key questions in legal and constitutional history. The study of the Supreme Court, the apex of the American judicial system, is of critical concern to students of American politics, government and history. The U.S. judicial system is complex, with authority dispersed among layers of local, state and federal governments. Traditionally, it has been the Supreme Court’s role to see that the rules are interpreted and followed. By offering more than 140 years of court history, U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs serves all scholars and students of the judicial system. Yet its applications go beyond the strict study of judicial business. These applications include the study of:

• American economic history
• American social history
• Rhetoric and the interpretation of language
• African American history and critical race theory
• Feminist studies and jurisprudence
• Philosophy and ethics
• Social studies