When does the Supreme Court release opinions?

The Supreme Court does not publish a schedule of which cases it will decide on a given day. It announces in advance only that a day will be an opinion day. On those days the Court releases one or more opinions, and it does not say beforehand which cases they will be or how many.

Opinion days

During the argument season, opinions are typically announced from the bench starting at 10 a.m. Eastern on days the Court has set aside for them. Each opinion is posted on supremecourt.gov as a "slip opinion" shortly after it is announced. Writings that relate to orders, such as a Justice's statement about the denial of a petition, are posted on a separate page.

Why May and June are so busy

A term begins on the first Monday in October and the Court aims to decide every argued case before its summer recess. Cases argued in the spring, and the most divided cases from any month, tend to be decided last. The result is a steady trickle of decisions through the winter and a flood in late May and June, often with several opinions released on the same morning.

Emergency rulings arrive any day

The Court also rules on emergency applications year-round, outside the regular opinion calendar. Those orders can be posted on any day, including during the summer. See what an emergency application is.

How to hear about each decision

SCOTUS Alerts checks supremecourt.gov every minute and sends a free email when a new opinion posts. On busy mornings we wait until the Court has been quiet for about two minutes and send one digest instead of an email per case. Our measured speed is published on the latency page.