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SCOTUSblog Access Skill

This skill provides programmatic access to Supreme Court case data from SCOTUSblog (www.scotusblog.com), sourced from their publicly accessible Sanity CMS API.

Overview

SCOTUSblog is a leading resource for Supreme Court news, analysis, and case tracking. This skill enables you to:

• List all Supreme Court terms (October Term 2007 onwards)
• Get cases for a specific term with filtering by status
• Retrieve detailed case information including holdings, judgments, and proceedings
• Search cases by title or docket number
• Get statistics about a term (cases granted, argued, decided, pending)
• List opinion authors (justices) and their authored opinions
• Track recent decisions and upcoming arguments

Data Source

Data is fetched directly from SCOTUSblog's Sanity CMS API at:

https://pito4za5.api.sanity.io/v1/data/query/production

This API is publicly accessible and provides structured data for all Supreme Court cases tracked by SCOTUSblog.

Functions

list_terms

Lists all Supreme Court terms with case counts.

{"function": "list_terms"}

Returns:

• terms: Array of term objects with title, slug, dates, and case count

get_term_cases

Get all cases for a specific term.

{"function": "get_term_cases", "term": "ot2024", "limit": 50}

Parameters:

• term (required): Term slug (e.g., "ot2024")
• status (optional): Filter by status ("decided", "pending", "granted", "denied")
• limit (optional): Max results (default: 100)
• offset (optional): Pagination offset (default: 0)

Returns:

• cases: Array of case objects
• total: Total count matching the query

get_term_stats

Get statistics for a specific term.

{"function": "get_term_stats", "term": "ot2024"}

Returns:

• term: Term details (title, slug, dates)
• statistics: Counts by status (total, decided, pending, granted, denied, argued)

get_case

Get detailed information about a specific case.

{"function": "get_case", "slug": "dewberry-group-inc-v-dewberry-engineers-inc"}

Or by docket number:

{"function": "get_case", "docket_number": "23-900"}

Returns:

• case: Full case details including:
  • title, slug, docket_number, status
  • date_argued, date_decided, vote
  • opinion_author, result, result_details
  • holding, judgment, issue_area (extracted text)
  • proceedings: Timeline of court actions
  • supreme_court_url, opinion_url

search_cases

Search for cases by title or docket number.

{"function": "search_cases", "query": "trademark"}

Returns:

• cases: Array of matching cases
• total: Count of results

list_opinion_authors

List all justices who have authored opinions.

{"function": "list_opinion_authors"}

Returns:

• authors: Array of justice names with case counts

get_cases_by_author

Get all cases authored by a specific justice.

{"function": "get_cases_by_author", "author": "Kagan"}

Returns:

• cases: Array of cases authored by the justice
• total: Count of cases

get_recent_decisions

Get the most recent Supreme Court decisions.

{"function": "get_recent_decisions", "limit": 10, "term": "ot2024"}

Parameters:

• limit (optional): Max results (default: 10)
• term (optional): Filter to specific term

Returns:

• cases: Array of recently decided cases

get_upcoming_arguments

Get pending cases awaiting decisions.

{"function": "get_upcoming_arguments", "term": "ot2025"}

Returns:

• cases: Array of pending cases

Data Fields

Case Status Values

• decided: Case has been decided
• pending: Case has been argued, awaiting decision
• granted: Cert petition granted
• denied: Cert petition denied

Proceeding Colors

The color field in proceedings indicates the type of filing:

• white: Routine filings
• cream: Amicus briefs
• orange: Opposition briefs
• tan: Reply briefs
• blue: Merits briefs (petitioner)
• red: Merits briefs (respondent)

Examples

Get all decided cases from OT2024

{
  "function": "get_term_cases",
  "term": "ot2024",
  "status": "decided",
  "limit": 20
}

Find a case by docket number

{
  "function": "get_case",
  "docket_number": "23-900"
}

Search for cases about a topic

{
  "function": "search_cases",
  "query": "voting rights"
}

Get recent decisions from October Term 2025

{
  "function": "get_recent_decisions",
  "term": "ot2025",
  "limit": 5
}

Rate Limits

The Sanity CMS API is publicly accessible with no documented rate limits. However, please use reasonable request rates and avoid excessive querying.

Coverage

• Supreme Court terms from October Term 2007 to present
• Case data includes docket information, proceedings, opinions, and analysis
• Data is updated regularly by SCOTUSblog editors