Harvard
Law Review (Harvard Law Review Association 1887
- present) (November issues).
Jerry
Goldman and Northwestern University, The
Oyez Project (visited Dec. 1, 1999) http://oyez.nwu.edu
(audio files available through "Cases"
link).
Each
year, the Harvard Law Review ("Review")
compiles statistics on the Justices voting
records during the preceding term and reports
the voting statistics in various tables at the
beginning of each volume. The Reviews
interest in the work of the Supreme Court began
with a series of articles co-authored by then
Professor Felix Frankfurter [108] and "first
assumed statistical form in 1925." [109]
The Frankfurter articles introduced a number
of charts tabulating particular characteristics
of the Supreme Courts activity. [110]
These charts consequently became models for
statistical tables which have "accompanied
the Supreme Court Note every year since the
Note was institutionalized in its present form
in 1949." [111]
A
recent Harvard Law Review containing voting
statistics divides the statistics into three
tables. [112] Table I, for example, includes
information pertaining to: (a) the voting actions
of the individual Justices, (b) the voting alignments,
(c) percentages indicating the unanimity of
the Supreme Court in the given term, and (d)
the number of 5-4 decisions. Table II includes
information on: (a) the final disposition of
cases, (b) cases granted review each term, (c)
the method of disposition, (d) the disposition
of cases reviewed on writ of certiorari, and
(e) the sources of cases disposed of on the
merits. Table III in a recent Review
volume provides information on the subject matter
of dispositions with full opinions. [113] The
voting records in the Review can provide
a wealth of information. The voting records
are published annually and represent a valuable
source of primary material on the Supreme Court.
In
addition to the Harvard Law Review, the
Oyez Project provides information about
the Justices voting records. [114] Generally,
the Harvard Law Review presents the Justices
voting records in statistical tables. The
Oyez Project, however, presents the Justices
voting records in an interactive format. [115]
Finding a Justices voting records on the
Oyez Web site involves several simple
steps. First, select the "Justices"
heading from the Oyez Web site. [116]
Second, select the name of a Justice. Third,
select the name of a particular case, and then
move the mouse over the image of the Justices
to learn how each Justice voted on that particular
case.
While
the Oyez Web site does not provide all
the Justices voting records, the Oyez
database is expanding. [117] The Oyez
Web site provides the sitting Supreme Court
Justices voting records, however, the
Oyez Web site does not provide voting
records for the most recent cases. [118]