U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Briefs from 1899 to 2024

53,447 amicus briefs spanning the 1899-2024 Supreme Court Terms. It provides an empirical portrait of the amicus ecosystem, tracking changes in the composition of filers such as government entities, libertarian organizations, and progressive groups over time.

Use Cases

• Analyze the decline in government-based entities' share of amicus filings from 29.6% in 1980 to 9.7% in 2024.
• Track the expansion of libertarian and free-market organizations from 2.9% to 11.0% of all briefs, the largest categorical increase.
• Examine network agreement patterns, such as the business-conservative coalition filing on the same side in 92-100% of shared cases.
• Investigate opposition patterns, like the -100% opposition between criminal-justice adversaries CJLF and NACDL.

Strengths

• Contains 53,447 amicus briefs, providing a substantial historical record.
• Covers a long temporal range from the 1899 Term through the 2024 Term.
• Includes detailed categorical analysis, such as the specific percentage shifts for government, libertarian, progressive, and labor union filers.
• Uses network analysis to reveal specific coordination metrics, like perfect lockstep among state and local government associations.

Limitations

• Column names and sample data are unavailable, limiting understanding of the data structure.
• The raw description focuses on aggregate trends and specific coalitions, which may limit analysis of individual briefs or less prominent filers.
• File format, size, and license information are unknown, complicating data access and reuse.

Provenance

Source

Harvard Dataverse

Collection Method

Newly constructed dataset as part of a research article; specific collection method not detailed.

Time Range

1899 to 2024 Supreme Court Terms

Freshness

Last updated on 2026-02-17.

Geography

United States, specifically the U.S. Supreme Court