CIVIL LIBERTIES DOCKET
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SELECTION OF CASES This DOCKET is different from other law reporters in several respects. It covers only cases in which one or both parties raised issues under the habeas corpus or ex post facto provisions of the US Constitution, the first Bill of Rights (Amendments One through Ten), the second Bill of Rights (the Civil War Amendments 13 through 15), or the 19th or 24th Amendments. The pertinent provisions of the Constitution are reprinted on the back cover, and the Index lists the hundreds of topics included within these provisions. Pertinent sections of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights are listed in the text where appropriate.
The DOCKET also differs in the types of cases reported. Most laymen assume that every case that is decided is reported somewhere and becomes a precedent for later decisions. Actually no cases are reported that are won without a written opinion, and this includes most cases that end after trial court decisions or jury verdicts. Only written opinions are reported. Even many lawyers assume there is some system by which all written opinions are promptly reported. Actually, many written opinions of federal district courts and of lower state courts are never submitted for publication or reported by official or unofficial reporter services.
The DOCKET describes opinions in cases whether or not they have been reported elsewhere. If a case is important, the DOCKET seeks to provide a brief, accurate statement of the court's holding, whether it can be considered precedent setting or only suggestive to a lawyer seeking a basis for a law suit or persuasive to a judge who is asked to decide a new point of law.
The DOCKET goes further and reports hundreds of cases that have not yet been tried. Many of these cases will be dismissed by one of the parties or the court without an opinion and will never prove a point one way or another, except for one thing. They will indicate that somewhere some client convinced some lawyer that he had a meritorious cause of action and the lawyer went as far as to file a complaint for relief or a motion to dismiss an indictment. Frequently these little cases do set a tone in a judicial district which affects the decisions in later cases. Sometimes several small cases that are dismissed without opinion lead to a case which gets a written opinion, is appealed, and ends up with a seminal opinion by the United States Supreme Court.
For these reasons, the DOCKET includes, where available, the number given to each case in the court where it is pending. Even if the case does not come to a final decision, its progress can be traced and documents about it can be obtained by writing to the court clerk, noting the title and court docket number. (There may be a small charge for material.)
The DOCKET also includes citations to forms and practice tools in the CIVIL RIGHTS HANDBOOK, described on the inside back cover.