TRANSCRIPTS AND RECORDINGS OF ORAL ARGUMENTS
(October 2008)
Beginning with the October 2006 Term, the Court will make the transcriptts of oral
arguments available free to the public on its Website, www.supremecourtus.gov, on the same
day an argument is heard by the Court.
The Court’s contracted reporting service, Alderson Reporting Company1, with the aid of
a court reporter in the Courtroom and high-speed technology, will transcribe the oral arguments
more quickly, therefore, providing the transcriptts to the Court for same day posting on our
website.
Transcriptts will be listed by case name and the date of oral argument. Transcriptts are
permanently archived beginning with the 2000 Term on the Court’s Website. Transcriptts prior to
the 2000 Term are maintained in the Supreme Court Library.
After Alderson completes an oral argument transcriptt and provides copies to the Court it
is sent to Westlaw and added to their collection. Westlaw’s collection includes oral argument
transcriptts since 1990, which subscribers can access through the SCT-ORALARG database2.
Such oral argument transcriptts are also available on the Lexis-Nexis service. Lexis-Nexis'
collection includes all oral argument transcriptts since the beginning of the October 1979 Term.
Subscribers to Lexis-Nexis (with a software package) can access these documents by entering the
GENFED library and then clicking on the USTRAN file, which allows for a case name, docket or
date range search for transcriptts3.
Alderson Reporting Company also delivers copies of oral argument transcriptts to the
Supreme Court Library where they are added to the Library’s records and briefs collection and
are available to the public after 3:00 p.m. the next business day4. The Library’s collection
1 To order a transcriptt from the contractor, contact Alderson Reporting Company, Inc., Attn: Transcriptt Order,
1111 14th Street, NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20005-5650. An Alderson Company representative can be
reached by phone at (202) 289-2260 or (800) 367-3376, fax at (202) 289-2221 or (800) 367-3310 or e-mail at
www.info@aldersonreporting.com. Transcriptts can also be ordered through Alderson’s website at
www.aldersonreporting.com (to purchase, click “Order Supreme Court Transcriptts”).
2 Westlaw can be reached by phone at (800) 328-4880, or through its website at https://www.westlaw.com/.
3 Lexis-Nexis can be reached by phone at (800) 356-6548 (Lexis Sales) or (800) 843-6476, or through its website
https://www.lexis-nexis.com/.
4 The Supreme Court website is at https://www.supremecourtus.gov (click on "Oral Arguments" and click on
"Argument Transcriptts").
contains the transcriptts of every oral argument since the beginning of the 1968 Term and a
random selection of transcriptts from oral arguments before the 1968 Term dating back to 1935.
Photocopies cost ten cents per page. In addition to its oral argument transcriptts, the Library’s
collection includes records and briefs from 1832 to the present.5
The Court also makes its own set of oral argument recordings. This set of recordings is
kept in the Marshal’s Office for the remainder of the Term, during which time it is not available
to the general public. At the beginning of the next Term, the recordings are transmitted from the
Marshal to the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch of the National Archives. 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.6 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 created
and maintained by Professor Jerry Goldman of Northwestern University.7 This website allows
access to approximately 588 cases through the use of the RealNetwork’s RealPlayer. 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. The website offers new audio materials from a Term approximately 10 months after the
end of that Term.
Many Supreme Court oral argument recordings and/or transcriptts are also available in
published collections that can be purchased. The 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, contains oral argument transcriptts and all written briefs
submitted to the Court (including amicus curiae briefs) for major cases in constitutional law that
are considered “landmark” cases by the editors. Purchases must be made by volume (not by
5
The United States Supreme Court Library can be reached by phone at (202) 479-3186.
6
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, Room 3340, 8601 Adelphi
Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. The Branch can be reached by phone at (301) 837-3540 or by fax at
(301) 837-3620. The website is located at:
https://www.archives.gov/research_room/media_formats/film_sound_video.html
7
The address for the Oyez Project website is https://oyez.nwu.edu/.
individual case) and each volume is hardbound and approximately 750 pages.8 This set is also
available at various law libraries.
Another collection of oral arguments is The Supreme Court’s Greatest Hits. This multimedia
CD-ROM program currently costs $29.95 and comprises oral arguments (taped and
digitally encoded directly from the Archives’ official recordings), texts, and images. The
program, edited by Professor Jerry Goldman, creator of the Oyez Project, includes fifty cases, six
related cases that were argued separately but decided with a principal case, and thirteen opinion
pronouncements.9
Oral argument collections are also available on microfiche. The Congressional
Information Service (CIS) produces a microfiche collection called Oral Arguments of the U. S.
Supreme Court. This collection includes oral argument transcriptts from the 1953 Term to the
present and can be purchased from CIS, which sells microfiches only by Term (not by individual
argument).10 The collection can also be found at various law libraries.
APPENDIX TO TRANSCRIPTS AND RECORDINGS
OF ORAL ARGUMENTS
PRINTED TRANSCRIPTS:
Alderson Reporting Company, Inc.
Attn: Transcriptt 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 Transcriptts”)
E-mail: www.info@aldersonreporting.com
The National Archives (Old Military and Civil Branch)
8
For more information about this publication, contact the Congressional Information Service, 4520 East-West
Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814-3389. It can be reached by phone at (301) 654-1550 or (800) 638-8380, or by fax at
(301) 657-3203. The website is located at https://www.cis.pubs.com/.
9
To order The Supreme Court’s Greatest Hits, contact the Association of American University Presses, 71 West
23rd Street, Suite #901, New York, NY 10010. The Association can by reached by phone at (212) 989-1010 or by
fax at (212) 989-0275. The website is located at https://aaup.uchicago.edu/. For more information about the
collection, see the following website: https://nupress.nwu.edu/scgh/.
10
For more information about the microfiche collection, contact the Congressional Information Service. See
footnote 8, supra.
National Archives Records and Administration
7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenues, NW
Washington, DC 20408
Phone: (202) 501-5395
Fax: (202) 219-6273
E-mail: NWCTB@nara.gov
United States Supreme Court Library
One First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20543
Phone (202) 479-3186
Website: www.supremecourtus.gov
ELECTRONIC TRANSCRIPTS:
Westlaw
Phone: (800) 328-4880
Website: https://www.westlaw.com/
Lexis-Nexis
Phone: (800) 356-6548 (Lexis sales)
(800) 843-6476
Website: https://www.lexis-nexis.com/
U.S. Supreme Court
Website: https://www.supremecourtus.gov
Click on "Oral Arguments"
Click on "Argument Transcriptts"
ORAL ARGUMENT RECORDINGS:
National Archives
Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch
National Archives at College Park
Room 3340
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Phone: (301) 837-3540
Fax: (301) 837-3620
Website: https://www.archives.gov/research_room/media_formats/film_sound_video.html
The Oyez Project (Northwestern University) -- Unofficial
Website: https://oyez.nwu.edu/
COLLECTIONS OF ORAL ARGUMENTS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE:
Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States: Constitutional Law
Lexis-Nexis
4520 East-West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814-3389
Phone: (301) 654-1550 or (800) 638-8380
Fax: (301) 657-3203
Website: https://www.cis.pubs.com/
The Supreme Court's Greatest Hits
The Association of American University Presses
71 West 23rd Street, Suite # 901
New York, NY 10010
Phone: (212) 989-1010
Fax: (212) 989-0275
Website: https://aaup.uchicago.edu/
E-mail: https://nupress@nwu.edu
MICROFILM/MICROFICHE
Oral Arguments of the U.S. Supreme Court
Lexis-Nexis
4520 East-West Highway
Bethesda, MD 20814-3389
Phone: (301) 654-1550 or (800) 638-8380
Fax: (301) 657-3203
