Methodology

1. 1. Primary
   SupremeCourt.gov

   Dockets, orders, briefs, transcripts, audio, opinions.

2. 2. Index
   CourtListener

   Docket and document indexes.

3. 3. Context
   SCOTUSblog, Oyez, Reuters, AP

   Background only. Never overrides the record.

When sources disagree, primary court materials control.

• Case names, docket numbers, dates, and status are checked against the source record before publication.
• A decision on the legal question, a refusal to hear a case, a dismissal, and a temporary order are different court actions. Explanations must preserve those distinctions.
• If there is not enough source material for an explanation, a page may show only the facts we can trace to the record.

The homepage combines a maintained editorial watchlist, scheduled Court activity, and aggregate readership. Known argument and decision dates help keep it timely; readership reflects the cases people are looking for. These inputs do not measure a ruling's legal or practical importance.

The main selection covers the current and previous Court terms. Decisions can remain eligible throughout that period. During summer recess, a separate preview may include up to two next-term cases with scheduled arguments. Each featured case must pass the same source checks as other public case pages.

• The emergency docket is also called the shadow docket (a name coined in 2015) and, by the justices themselves, the interim docket. Every substantive emergency application is tracked from the day it is filed: applications are found by walking the Court's application numbers in order and by reading its orders. Requests for more time are not tracked.
• The census covers applications filed since January 1, 2025. A page publishes as soon as the docket record reads cleanly, before the Court has acted; an application filed by the federal government waits up to 12 hours for its headline.
• Who filed is read from the caption: the United States, a federal officer named by office, or a federal agency is the federal government; states, territories, local governments, and their officers are counted as state or local governments; a prisoner facing execution is counted apart; everyone else is a private party.
• Granted and denied are shares of the applications the Court ruled on. Withdrawn, moot, and dismissed applications closed without a ruling and are counted apart. Days to ruling run from the docketed filing date to the order date.
• Most emergency orders do not say how each justice voted. A vote is shown only where the order or an opinion records it; every other seat is marked as not published, never counted with the majority. A 6-3 split means exactly three justices were recorded against the outcome, so the count is a floor.
• A ruling counts as explained in writing when the Court issued an opinion for the majority or its order gives reasons beyond a one-line disposition. Rulings whose order text has not been read yet are left out of that share.
• The answers on each page are written from the docket, the application, the ruling under review, and the Court's orders and opinions. Nothing on an application page predicts when or how the Court will rule.

Every published application is in data.csv and data.json, and each filing and ruling is in the Atom and JSON feeds.

Columns

docket_number

The Court's application number, such as 25A443. The 25A series began in July 2025.

caption

The case name as the Court's docket prints it.

applicant

The party asking for emergency help, as the docket names it.

respondent

The party on the other side.

application_type

What was asked for: stay, injunction, vacate, habeas, bail, or other.

is_capital

True when the application concerns a death sentence.

circuit_justice

The justice the application was first sent to.

lower_court

The court whose ruling is being challenged, when named.

related_merits_docket

The full merits case tied to this application, such as 25-332, when there is one.

status

Where it stands: pending, deferred (held for argument), argued, granted, granted_in_part, denied, withdrawn, moot, or dismissed.

filed_date

The day the Court docketed the application.

disposition_date

The day of the ruling or other closing order. Empty until then.

days_to_ruling

Days from filed_date to disposition_date. Empty until the Court rules.

disposition_summary

The order's text as the docket records it.

noted_dissents

Justices the order notes as dissenting or as voting the other way ("would grant", "would deny"), separated by "; ".

order_urls

Links to the Court's order PDFs for the ruling, separated by spaces.

source_page_url

The application's docket page on SupremeCourt.gov.

term

Docket year of the application number: 25A443 is in docket year 2025.

published_at

When this tracker first published the application.

updated_at

When this tracker last changed the row.

tracker_url

The application's page on this site.

applicant_kind

Who filed: federal_government, state_government, private, or capital_prisoner (a prisoner facing execution). Empty until classified.

response_due_at

The deadline the Court set for the other side to respond, as a timestamp.

referred_at

The day the application was sent to the full Court to decide.

administrative_stay_at

The day a justice put the lower court's ruling on hold for the moment (an administrative stay).

argument_date

The day the Court set for, or heard, oral argument on the application.

opinion_url

The opinion PDF that announced the ruling, when the Court issued one.

has_majority_explanation

True when the majority explained its ruling in writing, false when the order gave no reasons. Empty until the order text has been read.

refiled_from

The earlier application this one replaced after a withdrawal.

refiled_as

The application number this one was refiled under.

headline

A short plain-English topic label written by this site. The only generated field.

votes

JSON only. Each position the Court recorded: justice, position (majority, concurring, dissenting, would_grant, would_deny, took_no_part, or statement), writing_kind, joined_writing_author, and opinion_url. A justice not listed had no recorded position.

Filters

status

One status (pending, deferred, argued, granted, granted_in_part, denied, withdrawn, moot, dismissed), unresolved (pending, deferred, or argued), or ruled (everything else).

applicant_kind

federal_government, state_government, private, or capital_prisoner.

term

Docket year, such as 2025 for applications numbered 25A.

since

Filed on or after this date, as YYYY-MM-DD.

Filters combine, so a row must match all of them, as in data.json?status=ruled&applicant_kind=federal_government. A bad value returns an error (HTTP 400) that names the allowed values; other parameters are ignored.

Verified

Grounded in primary materials or reviewed snapshots.

Best effort

Primary plus trusted secondary sources; may shift.

Limited

Trust only the timeline, source trail, and primary documents.

• AI helps draft explanations and create conceptual illustrations. Each explanation must retain a traceable source record.
• Automated checks compare generated explanations with the source record before publication. These checks can miss mistakes; they are not a guarantee of accuracy.
• Topic links use reviewed classifications. A shared topic does not mean that one case controls another.

Report errors to contact@supremecourtcasetracker.com with the page URL and the source you checked.

• We investigate reports using the cited court documents. A page may be removed from listings while a material error is checked and corrected.
• Material changes to this methodology update the review date on this page.