 | |
Type of site | Database |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute Justia |
| Created by | Jerry Goldman |
| URL | oyez.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | None |
| Current status | active |
TheOyez Project is an unofficial online multimedia archive website for theSupreme Court of the United States. It was initiated by theIllinois Institute of Technology'sChicago-Kent College of Law and now also sponsored byCornell Law SchoolLegal Information Institute andJustia.
The website has emphasis on the court's audio of oral arguments. The website "aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since [...] October 1955."[1] The website also includesbiographical information of both incumbent and historicaljustices of the Court and advocates who have argued before the court. The project's name refers to the interjection, "Oyez", that is spoken by theSupreme Court Marshal at the beginning of each argument session. The website was founded by Jerry Goldman, a research professor of law at theChicago-Kent College of Law atIllinois Institute of Technology.
The Oyez Project was conceived in Chicago in the late 1980's by Jerry Goldman, a professor of political science, and initially implemented usingApple'sHyperCard software. Subsequent support from theNational Science Foundation andNational Endowment for the Humanities allowed the project to evolve and establish a presence on the internet.[2]
According to the website, the Oyez Project received technological support fromNational Science Foundation and grants fromNational Endowment for the Humanities. The project is also supported by various academic institutions such asWeinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the legalweb portalFindLaw, and the law firmMayer Brown, among others.[1]
Jerry Goldman put the Oyez Project up for sale in 2016. He estimated it is "worth well over $1 million", but he hopes the buyer will not put the project behind a paywall. Harvard Law School offered to pay the project's operating costs, but not Goldman's price.[3] In July 2016, theLegal Information Institute atCornell Law School andJustia joined IIT as sponsors.[4]
Oyez.org is listed by the Supreme Court as an authentic, although unofficial, online source to access the court's information.[5]
Oyez.org was featured as "Website of the Week" by international broadcasterVoice of America in January 2006.[6]
The old version of the Oyez database was awarded theSilver Gavel Award for New Media byAmerican Bar Association in 1998.[7] Its founder, Jerry Goldman, was given a medal award in 1997 byEDUCAUSE.[8]
But as of just a few weeks ago, all of the archived historical audio — which dates back to 1955 — has been digitized, and almost all of those cases can now be heard and explored at an online archive called the Oyez Project.
