Python client for parsing SCOTUS data from multiple sources.
Project description
![](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/109988/9503675/7a4bdfee-4c06-11e5-8619-e8f85ccb49f2.png)
## Usage ` pip install -e git@github.com:newsdev/nyt-clerk.git#egg=clerk python -m clerk.scdb python -m clerk.scotus python -m clerk.scores `
## Data * clerk/data/scdb_cases.json: SCDB fields about decided merits cases, excluding the justice and vote details. * clerk/data/scdb_justices.json: SCDB fields about individual justices. * clerk/data/scdb_votes.json: SCDB fields about a single justice’s vote in a single case. * clerk/data/scotus_cases.json: Case data from the SupremeCourt.gov site, including transcripts and audio where available. * clerk/data/scores_courtterms.json: Data about the ideology of a given Court term. * clerk/data/scores_justices.json: Data about the ideology and qualifications of a given Justice before they were confirmed. * clerk/data/scores_justicetterms.json: Data about the ideology of an individual Justice in a given Court term.
### SCDB Data SCDB data includes cases from 1946 term to the 2014 term. Many fields need to be mapped to their full values. The SCDB [maintains an online codebook](http://scdb.wustl.edu/documentation.php) with these maps.
### SCOTUS Data The SupremeCourt.gov site has case data from the 2000 term until the present for some cases. * Argument transcripts: 2000-present * Slip opinions (decision PDFs): 2006-present * Oral argument audio: 2010-present
### Ideology / Qualification Scores Martin-Quinn scores measure the relative ideology of a Justice or a Supreme Court term to the median Justice. Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn [wrote an excellent paper](http://mqscores.berkeley.edu/media/pa02.pdf) about the method.
Segal-Cover scores measure the ideology and qualification of an individual Justice before their appointment to the Court. Jeffrey Segal [wrote a summary](http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/polisci/jsegal/QualTable.pdf) and shows the raw data as a table (warning: PDF).
## Todos * Build inflator for turning JSON into Python objects. * Think a bit more about the developer API.
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