1. Visit the National Constitution Center to learn about your Amendment/Right.
2. Use Justia to review the Constitutional history of your Amendment/Right.
Find your topic, then look at the cases that served as precedents (reasoning) for Constitutional decisions. Start at the oldest court case, then work your way to modern times, or start with a recent decision and determine the oldest case used as a precedent.
3. Pick a specific Supreme Court case and learn about it on Oyez.
Oyez is best for simplified case summaries, making it a good first stop once you have the name of a court case.
4. Find the original text and supplemental resources on LII's Annotated Constitution
LII is most useful when you already have a background on the case.
1. When researching anywhere, use the plaintiff, defendant, and year as keywords.
2. Use as few words as possible when searching. DO: Brown v. Board syllabus. NOT: What is Brown v. Board of Education about?
3. Copy and paste a Bluebook citation, like Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
Court cases are organized using a citation style called "Bluebook." Like all citations, Bluebook keeps complicated information organized so every lawyer knows what case they're reading about and where to find more information.
The format is
Plaintiff v. Defendant, volume | reporting court | page number (year of the decision).
Let's look at a Bluebook citation together.
Oliver Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
Oliver Brown is the plaintiff. He brought the case to court.
Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas is the defendant. This is the group defending the action or decision.
347 is the volume, or the book number that will have the published court case.
U.S. is the abbreviation for the reporting court. U.S. means it is a Supreme Court decision.
483 is the page number. You could find the court case published on page 483 in volume 347 of the United States Reports (aka Supreme Court reports)
(1954) is the year the case was ruled upon. This is when the judges make a decision, and the result is published.
