Query the CourtListener API for SCOTUS docket entries and petitions for certiorari filed in a given term
domain: www.courtlistener.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Authenticate to CourtListener using 'Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN'
Query GET https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/dockets/?court=scotus&date_filed__gte=YYYY-MM-DD&date_filed__lte=YYYY-MM-DD to list dockets filed in the target term window
For a specific case, fetch its full docket entry list via GET /api/rest/v4/docket-entries/?docket=DOCKET_ID&order_by=date_filed
To locate certiorari petitions specifically, filter docket entries by description__icontains=certiorari or by the entry tag if available
Cross-reference against the Free Law Project Supreme Court bulk data at https://free.law/projects/supreme-court-data/ for historical metadata augmentation
Known gotchas
CourtListener scrapes SCOTUS filings; new opinions typically appear within 24 hours but there can be delays — do not use as a real-time alerting source without a docket alert configured
SCOTUS docket numbers use the format TERM-NUMBER (e.g., 23-1234); filter by docket_number_core when searching for a specific docket
The official SCOTUS website at supremecourt.gov does not provide a public API; all programmatic access relies on scraping or third-party sources like CourtListener
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