Courtlistener

CourtListener REST API v4

Use curl + jq to query CourtListener. Do NOT scrape the HTML website — it is blocked by CloudFront WAF. Always use the API endpoints below.

Base URL: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/

Anonymous access works (no token needed) but has lower rate limits. Authenticated users get 5,000 requests/hour.

Search API (primary entry point)

The search endpoint mirrors the website's search with GET parameters:

curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=QUERY&type=o" | jq '.results[:5]'

Type parameter

Examples

# Case law search
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=fourth+amendment+cell+phone&type=o" \
  | jq '.results[:3] | .[] | {caseName, dateFiled, court, citation, cluster_id}'

# PACER docket search
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=Apple+v+Epic&type=r" \
  | jq '.results[:3] | .[] | {caseName, docketNumber, court, dateFiled}'

# Judge search
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=Ketanji+Brown+Jackson&type=p" \
  | jq '.results[:3]'

# Oral arguments
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=qualified+immunity&type=oa" \
  | jq '.results[:3] | .[] | {caseName, dateArgued, court, download_url}'

Advanced operators

Use the same field operators as the website in the q parameter:

• caseName:Smith — filter by case name
• docketNumber:23-1234 — filter by docket number
• court:scotus — filter by court ID
• dateFiled:[2024-01-01 TO *] — date range
• citeCount:[10 TO *] — minimum citation count
• status:Published — publication status

Full operator list: https://www.courtlistener.com/help/search-operators/

Ordering and highlighting

# Order by date filed descending
curl -s "...&order_by=dateFiled+desc" | jq ...

# Enable snippet highlighting
curl -s "...&highlight=on" | jq '.results[0].opinions[0].snippet'

Case Law Detail

After finding a cluster_id from search, retrieve full case details:

# Get cluster metadata
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/clusters/2812209/" \
  | jq '{case_name, date_filed, citations, sub_opinions}'

# Get opinion text (use field selection to limit payload)
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/opinions/6489975/?fields=id,type,html_with_citations" \
  | jq '{id, type, text: .html_with_citations[:2000]}'

Filtering case law endpoints

# Opinions in a specific court
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/opinions/?cluster__docket__court=scotus" \
  | jq '.results[:3] | .[] | .id'

# Cluster by docket number + court
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/clusters/?docket__docket_number=23A994&docket__court=scotus" \
  | jq '.results[:3]'

PACER / Docket Data

# Look up a docket by number and court
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/dockets/?docket_number=1:16-cv-00745&court=dcd" \
  | jq '.results[:1] | .[] | {id, case_name, date_filed, date_terminated}'

# Get docket by ID
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/dockets/4214664/" \
  | jq '{case_name, docket_number, court_id, date_filed, date_last_filing}'

Follow docket_entries, parties, and attorneys links from the docket object for deeper data.

Judges

# Search by name
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/people/?name_last=Jackson&name_first=Ketanji" \
  | jq '.results[:3] | .[] | {id, name_first, name_last, date_dob}'

Positions, education, and financial disclosures are linked from the person object.

Oral Arguments

curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/audio/?docket__court=scotus&order_by=-date_created" \
  | jq '.results[:3] | .[] | {id, case_name, date_argued, download_url}'

Citation Lookup (verify citations / fight hallucinations)

# Look up a single citation
curl -s "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/citation-lookup/?text=410+U.S.+113" \
  | jq '.'

# Bulk: POST a block of text to parse all citations in it
curl -s -X POST "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/citation-lookup/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "See Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) and Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)."}' \
  | jq '.'

Query Refinement

These apply to all non-search endpoints (clusters, opinions, dockets, people, audio):

• Field selection: &fields=id,case_name,date_filed (reduces payload)
• Omit fields: &omit=html_with_citations
• Pagination: follow the next URL in responses
• Counting: &count=on returns only {"count": N}
• Date filters: &date_filed__gte=2024-01-01&date_filed__lte=2024-12-31
• Ordering: &order_by=-date_modified (prefix - for descending)
• Exclusion: &court__jurisdiction!=F (prepend ! to exclude)

Authentication (optional)

If you have a token, add it for higher rate limits:

curl -s --header 'Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN' \
  "https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4/search/?q=QUERY" | jq ...

Get a token from your CourtListener profile page.

Reference Links

• Full API docs: https://wiki.free.law/c/courtlistener/help/api/rest/v4/overview
• Advanced search operators: https://www.courtlistener.com/help/search-operators/
• Jurisdiction list: https://www.courtlistener.com/help/api/jurisdictions/
• Data coverage: https://www.courtlistener.com/help/coverage/
• Relative date queries: https://www.courtlistener.com/help/relative-dates/