From Free Law Project, A Nationwide Database of Judges
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Free Law Project has launched a database of biographical information on some 8,500 federal and state judges. The database can be searched through Free Law Project’s Courtlistener. It also can be downloaded as bulk data or accessed via APIs (application programming interface, for interacting with other software applications).
Free Law Project is a nonprofit devoted to providing the public with free access to primary legal materials on the Internet. It developed this database with support from the National Science Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in conjunction with Elliott Ash of Princeton University and Bentley MacLeod of Columbia University.
In announcing the database, Free Law Project said that it is intended to provide as many facts about judges as possible. At this point, the database is collecting:
- Biographical information including their full name, race, gender, birth and death dates and locations, and any aliases or nicknames that a judge may have.
- Educational information including which schools they went to, when they went, and what degrees they were awarded.
- Judicial positions they have held, showing not just courts and dates, but also details such as how they were nominated or elected, what the voting outcome was, who appointed them and the clerks they supervised.
- Non-judicial positions they have held, both before and after being a judge.
- Any ratings that a judge has been given by the American Bar Association.
- Political affiliations of judges, based on ballots for elected judges and nominators for appointed judges.
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