Federal Supplement
Encyclopedia
The Federal Supplement is a case law
reporter published by West Publishing in the United States
that includes select opinions of the United States district courts. Though West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the U.S. that legal professionals uniformly cite
the Federal Supplement for included decisions.
.
Only opinions designated by the courts as "for publication"—those with full precedent
ial value for which citation in court filings is permissible—are included in the Federal Supplement. "Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. district courts are often contained in West's Federal Appendex, and are typically available online from various commercial and public sources.
compilations, and on West's online legal database, Westlaw
. Because individual court cases are identified by case citation
s that consist of printed page and volume numbers, the electronic text of the opinions incorporates the page numbers of the printed volumes with "star pagination" formatting—the numbers are boldfaced within brackets and with asterisks prepended (i.e., [*4]) to stand out from the rest of the text.
Though West has copyright
over its original headnotes and keynotes, the opinions themselves are public domain
and accordingly may found in other sources, chiefly Lexis, Westlaw's competitor. Lexis also copies the star paginated Federal Supplement numbering in their text of the opinions to allow for proper citation, a practice that was the subject of an unsuccessful copyright lawsuit by West against the parent company of Lexis.
Case law
In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...
reporter published by West Publishing in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that includes select opinions of the United States district courts. Though West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the industry in the U.S. that legal professionals uniformly cite
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
the Federal Supplement for included decisions.
Features and print format
The Federal Supplement organizes court opinions within each volume by the date of the decision, and includes the full official text of the court's opinion. West editors add headnotes that summarize key principles of law in the cases, and Key Numbers that classify the decisions by topic within the West American Digest SystemWest American Digest System
The West American Digest System is a system of identifying points of law from reported cases and organizing them by topic and key number. The system was developed by West Publishing to organize the entire body of American law...
.
Only opinions designated by the courts as "for publication"—those with full precedent
Precedent
In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...
ial value for which citation in court filings is permissible—are included in the Federal Supplement. "Unpublished" decisions of the U.S. district courts are often contained in West's Federal Appendex, and are typically available online from various commercial and public sources.
Federal Supplement
| Citation: F. Supp. |
| Published: 1933–1998 |
| Volumes: 999 |
Courts covered:
|
Federal Supplement, Second Series
| Citation: F. Supp. 2d |
| Published: 1998–present |
| Volumes: over 600 |
Courts covered:
|
Electronic sources
The Federal Supplement, including its supplementary material, is also available on CD-ROMCD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
compilations, and on West's online legal database, Westlaw
Westlaw
Westlaw is one of the primary online legal research services for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States and is a part of West. In addition, it provides proprietary database services...
. Because individual court cases are identified by case citation
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
s that consist of printed page and volume numbers, the electronic text of the opinions incorporates the page numbers of the printed volumes with "star pagination" formatting—the numbers are boldfaced within brackets and with asterisks prepended (i.e., [*4]) to stand out from the rest of the text.
Though West has copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
over its original headnotes and keynotes, the opinions themselves are public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
and accordingly may found in other sources, chiefly Lexis, Westlaw's competitor. Lexis also copies the star paginated Federal Supplement numbering in their text of the opinions to allow for proper citation, a practice that was the subject of an unsuccessful copyright lawsuit by West against the parent company of Lexis.