Which publication is the official reporter for United States Supreme Court cases?

• A. United States Reports
• B. Supreme Court Reporter
• C. Federal Reporter
• D. Lexis Supreme Court Theories

Answer: (A)

The official publication for the Supreme Court’s opinions is United States Reports. This is the government’s own record of the Court’s decisions; it’s compiled by the Court’s Reporter of Decisions and bound into volumes bearing the title United States Reports. Because it’s the official source, citations to Supreme Court cases use the United States Reports volume and page, such as United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974), reflecting the authoritative version of the opinion.

The other publications are not the official record. Supreme Court Reporter is produced by a private publisher and provides an unofficial, parallel record with its own pagination and annotations. Federal Reporter collects opinions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals (the circuit courts) and is not the Supreme Court’s official publication. The remaining option isn’t a real or recognized reporter for Supreme Court opinions.