GPO Providing Free Access to Court Opinions

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Federal Judiciary are launching a one-year pilot program providing free public access to court opinions through GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys).

The joint project was approved by the Judicial Conference of the United States and GPO's Congressional oversight committee, the Joint Committee on Printing. When fully implemented, the pilot will include up to 42 courts. The Judiciary continually has sought ways to enhance public access to court opinions. Free access to opinions in all Federal courts is currently available via the Judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records service (PACER). Building on that success, staff from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts met with GPO management to explore making opinions available through FDsys, which can provide the public with a robust search engine that can search common threads across opinions and courts.