Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

For developers + AI agents

OpenJurist is a free, public-domain legal-research portal for United States law — federal, state, and tribal. Court opinions, the U.S. Code, a multi-source dictionary, federal judges, courts, law schools, founding documents, and 304 curated landmark decisions. Public-domain source data, open-source enrichment, free of charge for low-volume use.

Pull JSON from the read-only API below, or (post-launch) connect your AI assistant via MCP. /llms.txt describes the surface for agents.

Case law

Federal, state, and tribal court opinions. Public-domain bodies plus citation metadata.

  • GET/api/v1/opinions/by-path?path=/{citation-path}One opinion by citation path; leading / required (e.g. /347/us/483)
  • GET/api/v1/opinions/by-volume?series={s}&volume={n}Every opinion in a reporter volume
  • GET/api/v1/opinions/by-series?series={s}Volumes available in a reporter series
  • GET/api/v1/opinions/notable?series=&volume=&limit=&offset=Notable opinions, paginated
  • GET/api/v1/landmark-cases/by-series?series={s}304 curated SCOTUS landmarks (144 marked overruled)
  • GET/api/v1/federal-reportersReporter-series directory

Statutes + codes

The United States Code (with historical versions), state codes, and named statutes.

  • GET/api/v1/usc/titlesAll U.S. Code titles
  • GET/api/v1/usc/by-path?path={p}&asOf={YYYY-MM-DD}A USC node, optionally as of a historical date
  • GET/api/v1/usc/compare?path={p}&from={YYYY-MM-DD}&to={YYYY-MM-DD}&mode={unified|side-by-side}Redline diff of a USC section between two dates (omit `to` to compare against current; `to`/`mode` optional)
  • GET/api/v1/state-code?state=&code=&section=A state code section
  • GET/api/v1/statutesNamed-statute index
  • GET/api/v1/statutes/{slug}A named statute

Dictionary

Multi-source legal dictionary (Black's, Ballentine's, case-law definitions).

  • GET/api/v1/dictionary?q=&letter=&source=&page=Browse / search terms
  • GET/api/v1/dictionary/{term-slug}Combined entries for a term, all sources

People + institutions

Judges, courts, law schools, libraries, presidents, and founding documents.

  • GET/api/v1/judges?scope=&court=&q=&letter=&sort=&page=Federal judges, faceted
  • GET/api/v1/judges/{slug}Judge profile: appointments, education, opinions
  • GET/api/v1/courts/by-slug?slug={slug}A court
  • GET/api/v1/courts/by-facet?facet={circuit|type|state}&value={slug}Courts by facet (e.g. facet=state&value=california)
  • GET/api/v1/schools?q=&accreditation=&letter=&page=Law schools
  • GET/api/v1/schools/{slug}A law school
  • GET/api/v1/libraries/by-slug?slug={slug}A law library
  • GET/api/v1/presidentsU.S. presidents (index + /{slug})
  • GET/api/v1/founding/by-slug?slug={slug}A founding document

Discovery + cross-sell

Search, taxonomy, practice areas, and bookshop links.

  • GET/api/v1/search?q={terms}&type={entity?}Site-wide search
  • GET/api/v1/practice-areasPractice areas (index + /{slug})
  • GET/api/v1/entity-books?entityKind=X&entityId=NBooks linked to an entity (bookshop cross-sell)

Empirical findings + methodology — post-launch

OpenJurist launches as a research portal; the empirical-analytics layer rolls out after launch. Findings are admin-reviewed, AI-drafted reports, each with a defended methodology and the underlying data.

  • GET/api/v1/findingsPublished findings (?homepage=1 → homepage subset)
  • GET/api/v1/findings/{slug}An algorithm's run history
  • GET/api/v1/findings/{slug}/{run-id}A single published run (retraction info if applicable)
  • GET/api/v1/daily-feedToday's published daily-feed batch

Coming soon

  • MCP server endpoint (post-launch)/.well-known/mcpInstall in Claude Desktop / ChatGPT / Cursor / Perplexity
  • OpenAPI / Scalar docs (post-launch)/api-docsInteractive API explorer
  • Bulk data downloads (post-launch)/dataCloudflare R2-hosted, by-jurisdiction sharded
  • Empirical findings + /findings.rss (post-launch)/findingsAnalytics layer: published findings + methodology pages

Sources + licenses

  • Federal opinions: public domain (U.S. Government work).
  • U.S. Code: public domain.
  • Founding documents: public domain.
  • CourtListener bulk data: CC-BY-SA — Free Law Project attributed where used.
  • Caselaw Access Project: public domain bulk data.
  • Wikipedia-sourced curated lists (landmarks, overruled): CC-BY-SA.
  • OpenJurist enrichment (citation graph, treatment classifications, finding algorithms): open-source, license being finalized.