Searchable index of Judge Posner’s decisions – law for the people

Tim Wu — copyfightin’ Columbia Law prof — writes in with this new project:


Project Posner is a free and fully searchable database of Judge Richard Posner’s 2100+ opinions. It is one of a very tiny handful of free legal case searches on the internet right now.

The law supposedly belongs to the people, but it can be surprisingly hard to find. American case reports — which are the real law of the nation — are hard to get at, and even when on the internet, rarely searchable. To get real access you generally need a Westlaw subscription which costs a small fortune. Wikilaw is a great effort to try and change this, but it is still primitive.

We chose Posner because he was my old boss, and because he’s arguably the most influential judge in the nation (including those on the supreme court). Project Posner is just a beta. It is a test project for will be more to come.

Link (Thanks, Tim!)

Update: Tim sez, “I wrongly and evilly forgot to properly credit my programmer, Stuart Sierra, who actually did the coding for Project Posner.”

Update 2: John sez, “The Legal Information Institute is another project that aims to make US laws more accessible. The LII is a free service of Cornell Law School, and contains links to US cases and statutes, introductions to areas of law, and lots of other content for nonlawyers and lawyers. (Full disclosure: I am a student at Cornell Law, but I do not work on the LII.) Enjoy.”