Inside the Supreme Court
Petition to Decision
Papers of Supreme Court Justices on Civil Rights Cases
David Achtenberg
Professor & Law Foundation Scholar
UMKC School of Law
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499
816-235-2382
| Will Home |
|
Blackmun Files |
| Brennan Files |
| Marshall Files |
| White Files |
| Abbreviations |
Digital Archive
| The Blackmun Papers | The Brennan Papers | The Marshall Papers | The White Papers |
Coverage: This page links you to the digital archive of all the available papers of Supreme Court Justices dealing with Will v. Michigan Department of State Police. Currently, Will papers are available for Justices Blackmun, Brennan, Marshall and White. The digital archive presents the papers just as you would find them in the archives where the originals are stored.
Alternative Ways to View the Justices' Papers: Many researchers may prefer to view the papers in chronological (rather than archival) order. To do so, you should click here to go to the Timeline Page.
Examples of Digital Box and File: In the Marshall Files page of the digital archives, Box 471 File 9 appears as shown below. In the Thurgood Marshall Papers at the Library of Congress, Box 471 File 9 of the Marshall papers contains eight documents totaling ninety-nine pages. The digital "file" contains the same documents in the order that you would find them if you examined the originals in the Archives. For example, the first document (the final draft of Justice Brennan's dissent) can be accessed by clicking on the "Begins" image number (TM471F90001) highlighted in red in the document below.
| Box 471 File 9 | |||||
| Brief Description | Date | Begins | Ends | ||
| WJB Dissent | 6/14/1989 | TM471F90001 | TM471F90017 | ||
| WJB Dissent 3rd Draft (v2) | 6/14/1989 | TM471F90018 | TM471F90034 | ||
| BRW Opinion 7th Draft | 6/12/1989 | TM471F90035 | TM471F90046 | ||
| WJB Dissent 3rd Draft | 6/12/1989 | TM471F90047 | TM471F90063 | ||
| JPS Dissent 4th Draft | 6/9/1989 | TM471F90064 | TM471F90071 | ||
| JPS Dissent 3rd Draft | 6/7/1989 | TM471F90072 | TM471F90079 | ||
| BRW Opinion 6th Draft | 6/5/1989 | TM471F90080 | TM471F90091 | ||
| JPS Dissent 2nd Draft | 6/5/1989 | TM471F90092 | TM471F90099 | ||
While the justices have files dedicated to particular cases, they also have files where they kept particular types of document for all the cases decided in a particular term. For example, Justice Marshall maintained "Docket Files" which contained his hand-written notes on certiorari and merits conferences, i.e., the meetings during which the Court discussed and voted on each case. Since each of these files contained notes on various cases, the digital version of the file only includes the documents related to Will. For example, the digital "Docket File" below (Box 551 File 5) contains Marshall's notes only on the conferences at which Will was discussed or voted on.
| Box 551 File 5 | |||||
| Brief Description | Date | Begins | Ends | ||
| TM Docket Sheet | various | TM551F50001 | |||
| TM Conference Notes | 12/07/88 | TM551F50002 | TM551F50003 | ||
Abbreviations: I have abbreviated the names of the justices, their clerks, and a few other persons. A key to all abbreviations that can be accessed by clicking the abbreviations button in the yellow navigation area.
Higher Resolution Copies: Most of the documents are presented in comparatively small pdf files which should be adequate for most uses. Please let me know if you think that any particular image needs to be replaced with a higher resolution version. I will also be happy to send higher resolution copies (or original JPEGs) of any images to anyone who needs them. For further information about how the documents were photographed, edited and converted to pdf files, click here to go to the Image Creation and Conversion Protocol Page.
Sources and Citation: For an explanation of how to determine the original archive location of any document, click here to go to the Document Source Page.