CourtListener Opinions API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: CourtListener REST Alerts Opinions API
  description: REST API providing programmatic access to US court opinions, PACER docket data, judge records, financial disclosures, oral argument audio, citation lookup and network analysis, search alerts, and case visualizations. Operated by the Free Law Project.
  version: '4.4'
  contact:
    name: Free Law Project
    url: https://free.law/contact/
    email: info@free.law
  license:
    name: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
    url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
  termsOfService: https://free.law/terms/
servers:
- url: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v4
  description: CourtListener REST API v4 (current)
- url: https://www.courtlistener.com/api/rest/v1
  description: CourtListener REST API v1 (legacy)
security:
- tokenAuth: []
tags:
- name: Opinions
paths:
  /api/rest/v4/opinions/:
    get:
      summary: List Opinions
      description: Court opinion documents
      operationId: listOpinions
      tags:
      - Opinions
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/format'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/cursor'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/order_by'
      - name: fields
        in: query
        description: Comma-separated list of fields to include in the response
        required: false
        schema:
          type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Paginated list of opinions
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/PaginatedResponse'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited'
  /api/rest/v4/opinions/{id}/:
    get:
      summary: Retrieve Opinion
      description: Retrieve a single opinion by ID
      operationId: retrieveOpinion
      tags:
      - Opinions
      parameters:
      - name: id
        in: path
        required: true
        description: Unique identifier for the opinion
        schema:
          type: integer
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/format'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Single opinion record
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Opinion'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited'
components:
  responses:
    NotFound:
      description: Resource not found
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            type: object
            properties:
              detail:
                type: string
    Unauthorized:
      description: Authentication required
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            type: object
            properties:
              detail:
                type: string
    RateLimited:
      description: Rate limit exceeded
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            type: object
            properties:
              detail:
                type: string
  parameters:
    format:
      name: format
      in: query
      description: Response format (json, xml, html)
      required: false
      schema:
        type: string
        enum:
        - json
        - xml
        - html
    order_by:
      name: order_by
      in: query
      description: Field to order results by
      required: false
      schema:
        type: string
    cursor:
      name: cursor
      in: query
      description: Cursor for pagination
      required: false
      schema:
        type: string
  schemas:
    Opinion:
      type: object
      description: Court opinion document
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        resource_uri:
          type: string
          format: uri
        absolute_url:
          type: string
        cluster:
          type: string
          format: uri
        author:
          type: string
          format: uri
          nullable: true
        type:
          type: string
          enum:
          - 010combined
          - 015unamimous
          - 020lead
          - 025plurality
          - 030concurrence
          - 035concurrenceinpart
          - 040dissent
          - 050addendum
          - 060remittitur
          - 070rehearing
          - 080onthemerits
          - 090onmotiontostrike
        date_created:
          type: string
          format: date-time
        date_modified:
          type: string
          format: date-time
        plain_text:
          type: string
        html:
          type: string
        html_lawbox:
          type: string
        html_columbia:
          type: string
        html_with_citations:
          type: string
        download_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        local_path:
          type: string
        opinions_cited:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
            format: uri
    PaginatedResponse:
      type: object
      description: Standard paginated list response
      properties:
        count:
          type: integer
          description: Total number of results
        next:
          type: string
          format: uri
          nullable: true
          description: URL to next page
        previous:
          type: string
          format: uri
          nullable: true
          description: URL to previous page
        results:
          type: array
          items: {}
  securitySchemes:
    tokenAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: Authorization
      description: 'Token-based authentication. Format: ''Token <your_token>'''
    basicAuth:
      type: http
      scheme: basic
    cookieAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: cookie
      name: sessionid
externalDocs:
  description: CourtListener API Documentation
  url: https://wiki.free.law/c/courtlistener/help/api/rest/v4/overview