| --- |
| license: cc0-1.0 |
| language: |
| - en |
| task_categories: |
| - text-retrieval |
| - text-generation |
| size_categories: |
| - 1M<n<10M |
| pretty_name: US Caselaw |
| tags: |
| - legal |
| - law |
| - caselaw |
| - us-law |
| - court-opinions |
| - public-domain |
| - rag |
| - legal-nlp |
| - legal-research |
| - federal |
| - state-law |
| configs: |
| - config_name: opinions |
| data_files: |
| - split: train |
| path: |
| - data/al/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ak/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/az/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ar/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ca/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/co/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ct/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/de/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/dc/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/fl/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ga/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/hi/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/id/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/il/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/in/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ia/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ks/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ky/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/la/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/me/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/md/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ma/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/mi/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/mn/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ms/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/mo/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/mt/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ne/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/nv/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/nh/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/nj/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/nm/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ny/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/nc/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/nd/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/oh/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ok/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/or/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/pa/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ri/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/sc/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/sd/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/tn/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/tx/opinions-part*.jsonl.gz |
| - data/ut/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/vt/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/va/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/wa/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/wv/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/wi/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/wy/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/scotus/opinions-2026-06-30.jsonl.gz |
| - data/fed-appellate/opinions-2026-06-30-part*.jsonl.gz |
| - data/fed-district/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/fed-bankruptcy/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/fed-special/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/territories/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/tribal/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| - data/extras/opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz |
| dataset_info: |
| - config_name: opinions |
| features: |
| - name: id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: doc_type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: jurisdiction |
| dtype: string |
| - name: title |
| dtype: string |
| - name: text |
| dtype: string |
| - name: source |
| dtype: string |
| - name: license |
| dtype: string |
| - name: retrieved_at |
| dtype: string |
| - name: citation |
| dtype: string |
| - name: court |
| dtype: string |
| - name: date |
| dtype: string |
| - name: extra |
| struct: |
| - name: cl_opinion_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: cluster_id |
| dtype: string |
| - name: opinion_type |
| dtype: string |
| - name: text_kind |
| dtype: string |
| - name: source_label |
| dtype: string |
| --- |
| |
| # US Caselaw |
|
|
| > **Code & tools:** [github.com/docketx](https://github.com/docketx) — [legal-scrambler](https://github.com/docketx/legal-scrambler) pseudonymises a case file on your own hardware before a frontier model sees it; [claude-for-legal](https://github.com/docketx/claude-for-legal) is the Claude Code plugin (`docketx-open-law`) that loads these datasets and checks citations against them. |
|
|
| **The American case-law record in one dataset** — published opinions from the Free Law Project / |
| CourtListener bulk export of 2026-06-30: full text, all opinion types (majority, concurring, |
| dissenting, per curiam, orders), one uniform row format across every jurisdiction. |
|
|
| **10,797,772 opinions are live in this repo** across 50 states + DC, the Supreme Court, the federal |
| appellate, district, bankruptcy and special courts, the U.S. territories, the tribal courts, and a catch-all of |
| state trial courts, attorney-general opinions and specialty tribunals that no other series carries. Every number on this page was measured by |
| counting the lines of the actual uploaded file; none is an estimate. |
|
|
| ## Load it |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| ds = load_dataset("docketx/us-caselaw", split="train") # everything |
| ds = load_dataset("docketx/us-caselaw", split="train", streaming=True) # 60 GB — stream it |
| ``` |
|
|
| One jurisdiction only? Each also stands alone as `docketx/us-caselaw-<code>` (e.g. |
| `docketx/us-caselaw-tx`), which is much cheaper than pulling the union. |
|
|
| ## Row format |
|
|
| Every row is **docketx record v1**. Every column is a string in every file: |
|
|
| | field | meaning | |
| |---|---| |
| | `id` | stable docketx document id | |
| | `doc_type` | `opinion` | |
| | `jurisdiction` | jurisdiction code — the `<code>` in `data/<code>/` | |
| | `title` | case caption | |
| | `text` | full opinion text | |
| | `source` | origin of the record (CourtListener) | |
| | `license` | `public-domain` | |
| | `retrieved_at` | bulk-export date | |
| | `citation` | reporter citation where the source has one | |
| | `court` | court identifier | |
| | `date` | date filed | |
| | `extra` | `cl_opinion_id`, `cluster_id`, `opinion_type`, `text_kind`, `source_label` | |
|
|
| The schema is declared in `dataset_info` above rather than inferred, and the `opinions` config lists |
| its files explicitly. That is deliberate: a blind `data/*/*.jsonl.gz` glob previously pulled |
| statute and court-rule files (which carry `rule_set`/`rule_number` and a differently-shaped `extra`) |
| into the same config, so the parquet conversion inferred its schema from the first file, hit a |
| column-name mismatch, and failed the whole dataset to 0 rows. Statutes and rules now live only in |
| `docketx/us-statutes` and `docketx/court-rules`, where they belong. |
|
|
| ## What is here — measured counts |
|
|
| ### States and DC |
|
|
| | jurisdiction | code | opinions | |
| |---|---|---:| |
| | Alabama | `al` | 166,537 | |
| | Alaska | `ak` | 14,914 | |
| | Arizona | `az` | 44,194 | |
| | Arkansas | `ar` | 80,470 | |
| | California | `ca` | 242,831 | |
| | Colorado | `co` | 62,317 | |
| | Connecticut | `ct` | 61,409 | |
| | Delaware | `de` | 23,480 | |
| | District of Columbia | `dc` | 26,001 | |
| | Florida | `fl` | 447,040 | |
| | Georgia | `ga` | 230,300 | |
| | Hawaii | `hi` | 35,879 | |
| | Idaho | `id` | 35,820 | |
| | Illinois | `il` | 249,250 | |
| | Indiana | `in` | 136,110 | |
| | Iowa | `ia` | 83,272 | |
| | Kansas | `ks` | 69,413 | |
| | Kentucky | `ky` | 92,146 | |
| | Louisiana | `la` | 367,729 | |
| | Maine | `me` | 31,116 | |
| | Maryland | `md` | 53,833 | |
| | Massachusetts | `ma` | 90,879 | |
| | Michigan | `mi` | 159,686 | |
| | Minnesota | `mn` | 71,487 | |
| | Mississippi | `ms` | 76,841 | |
| | Missouri | `mo` | 161,325 | |
| | Montana | `mt` | 64,117 | |
| | Nebraska | `ne` | 51,154 | |
| | Nevada | `nv` | 36,992 | |
| | New Hampshire | `nh` | 22,351 | |
| | New Jersey | `nj` | 142,776 | |
| | New Mexico | `nm` | 35,069 | |
| | New York | `ny` | 963,045 | |
| | North Carolina | `nc` | 148,915 | |
| | North Dakota | `nd` | 27,900 | |
| | Ohio | `oh` | 270,910 | |
| | Oklahoma | `ok` | 81,558 | |
| | Oregon | `or` | 86,341 | |
| | Pennsylvania | `pa` | 347,902 | |
| | Rhode Island | `ri` | 26,773 | |
| | South Carolina | `sc` | 62,793 | |
| | South Dakota | `sd` | 25,593 | |
| | Tennessee | `tn` | 92,508 | |
| | Texas | `tx` | 662,717 | |
| | Utah | `ut` | 34,886 | |
| | Vermont | `vt` | 27,714 | |
| | Virginia | `va` | 54,048 | |
| | Washington | `wa` | 150,239 | |
| | West Virginia | `wv` | 39,546 | |
| | Wisconsin | `wi` | 72,350 | |
| | Wyoming | `wy` | 16,358 | |
| | **51 jurisdictions** | | **6,658,834** | |
|
|
| ### Federal, territorial, tribal and catch-all |
|
|
| | tier | code | opinions | state | |
| |---|---|---:|---| |
| | Supreme Court of the United States | `scotus` | 521,825 | complete | |
| | Federal bankruptcy courts | `fed-bankruptcy` | 79,523 | complete | |
| | Federal special courts | `fed-special` | 280,860 | complete | |
| | U.S. territories | `territories` | 67,210 | complete | |
| | Tribal courts | `tribal` | 2,205 | complete | |
| | Federal appellate (all circuits) | `fed-appellate` | 1,510,937 | complete | |
| | Federal district courts | `fed-district` | 1,199,105 | complete | |
| | State trial courts, AG opinions, specialty tribunals (1,612 court ids) | `extras` | 477,273 | complete | |
|
|
| **Every count on this page was measured on 2026-09-17** by decompressing each file the `opinions` config |
| loads and counting its lines. Every state's loaded data is byte-identical to its standalone |
| `docketx/us-caselaw-<code>` dataset (same SHA-256; Texas as three parts holding the same 662,717 rows), and |
| each of those counts matched its publish manifest exactly. Total: **10,797,772 opinions**. |
|
|
| The bulk export holds 10,798,347 opinions. The `extras` slice (added 2026-09-17, 477,273 rows, 0 duplicate ids, |
| slice sha256 `9123f2d3cdff3c48…`) carries the 1,612 state courts that no per-jurisdiction plan included (477,294 |
| opinions; 21 of them have empty text). It includes 67,524 attorney-general opinion reports from 16 states, which are official |
| opinions but not court decisions. To exclude them, drop rows whose `court` is `extras-` followed by one of: `texag`, `oklaag`, `arkag`, `laag`, `flaag`, `nyag`, `nebag`, `moag`, `wisag`, `calag`, `kanag`, `coloag`, `mdag`, `washag`, `minnag`, `paag`. (Do not filter on a trailing `ag`: Ohio's Portage County courts and an Onondaga County court also end that way.) 575 opinions are in no |
| file, each for a known reason: 533 in planned courts and 21 in `extras` have empty text, and 21 have a cluster or |
| docket missing from the bulk export itself. |
|
|
| ### Superseded files still on disk |
|
|
| Until 2026-09-17 this page's config loaded an older, smaller slice for 44 jurisdictions (the page then |
| served 9,095,360 of 10,320,499; Florida loaded 259,051 of 447,040, California 227,809 of 242,831). The |
| config now loads the complete `opinions-2026-06-30.v1.jsonl.gz` for those 44. The older files are no |
| longer part of any config and are kept only until they are removed in a cleanup commit. |
|
|
| ## Coverage honesty |
|
|
| The open record is appellate-heavy. Most US **trial-court** rulings are published nowhere at all — |
| no database has them, including this one. What is here is the published record. |
|
|
| ## Provenance and license |
|
|
| Judicial opinions are edicts of government and carry no copyright (*Banks v. Manchester*, |
| 128 U.S. 244 (1888); *Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org*, 590 U.S. 255 (2020)). Packaging is CC0 1.0. |
| Source: CourtListener bulk export of 2026-06-30, Free Law Project — https://free.law. |
|
|
| Built by [DocketX](https://docketx.ai) — the same corpus powers the verified legal API at |
| [docketrouter.ai](https://docketrouter.ai). |
|
|
