About SCOTUSGate
A Portal to the Supreme Court Docket
SCOTUSGate tracks petitions for certiorari and shadow-docket activity at the Supreme Court of the United States, with a particular focus on making pending cases accessible and visible to the public.
Origin
For many years I relied on certpool.com as an essential resource for monitoring the Court's certiorari docket. When that site stopped updating, I created SCOTUSGate in 2024 and ran it on my personal computer — checking daily for new and interesting Supreme Court cases. The project uses AI tools to enhance the docket sheets — pulling in the questions presented, organizing case information, and highlighting cases that might otherwise escape notice. In February 2026, I decided to launch SCOTUSGate publicly.
I use SCOTUSGate to identify new intellectual property cases to write about on Patently-O and in my broader academic work. But the site covers the full breadth of the Court's docket, and I hope it proves useful to anyone tracking Supreme Court activity.
Why "SCOTUSGate"?
A gateway. The site is a portal — a point of entry to information about what the Court is considering and deciding.
A gate. The certiorari process is itself a gate. The Court grants review in only a small fraction of cases, barring further consideration for most petitioners. The shadow docket operates with even less transparency. This site aims to illuminate what happens at that threshold.
A call for transparency. In the tradition of naming institutional accountability efforts after Watergate, SCOTUSGate is built on the conviction that the public benefits when the Court's work is visible, accessible, and open to scrutiny.
The database behind the site is named Cerberus — after the three-headed dog of Greek myth who guards the gates of the underworld. I thought it was a fitting namesake for a system that watches the gate.
Purpose
SCOTUSGate exists to bring transparency to the certiorari and shadow-docket stages of Supreme Court litigation, to highlight important pending cases, and to lower the barriers to accessing court information. The docket belongs to the public, and public understanding of the Court depends on being able to see what is before it.
This is a personal project, not an official university resource.
Contact me with suggestions and bugs: