Via this Scotusblog post, we learn the Law Library of Congress has made available digital versions of the U.S. Reports from the Founding Era onward to 2004, just in case you want to see a page image of some of your favorite Supreme Court decisions from those dusty old books lawyers used to have to consult. Terry v. Ohio, perhaps. Or Miranda v. Arizona. Or how about Justice Jackson’s opinion in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) (albeit, alas, with one page missing), which overruled Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586, decided a mere three years earlier, and reminded us that:
To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds. We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. When they are so harmless to others or to the State as those we deal with here, the price is not too great. But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
(There’s more—much more—on Barnette and Gobitis here.)
Looking for something of a more recent vintage? The Supreme Court’s recently redesigned web page has just what you’re looking for.
Enjoy!
