What is the Clearinghouse The Importance of Civil Rights Litigation Sources Case Category Specifics Copyright and Citation Rules Disclaimer People Advisory Committee Washington University Components Privacy Policy The Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse assembles documents and information from a large variety of sources: For federal cases, we have obtained the district court docket sheet if it is available via the courts' PACER system (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). Usually, a docket sheet is available from PACER only if the case in question had litigation in 1993 or later. In some districts, judicial orders or even the parties' pleadings are also available from PACER. In that event, we have gathered and posted what seemed to us to be the most important of these orders and pleadings. In some older cases, we have been able to obtain the docket sheet from the National Archives and Records Administration. The ACLU's National Prison Project generously shared many complaints and decrees from its files. We have many documents—official correspondence, complaints, and decrees—from the files of the Special Litigation Section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. In many instances, we have documents from other parties and counsel. For each case, we have searched Lexis and Westlaw, looking for judicial opinions. Because of copyright restrictions, we are not posting such opinions but rather making them available by listing the citation and linking to them on Lexis or Westlaw. Users will need a subscription to these (paid) services for these links to be useful. Contact Report an Error Privacy Policy The Clearinghouse has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation.