Oyez Project moves to IIT Chicago-Kent

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the new headquarters of the Oyez Project (www.oyez.org), a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. Visited more than 700,000 times in the past 30 days, the site aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955.

The site's archive of digitized arguments enables users to search for key terms relevant to their research. A search for a particular term, such as "strict scrutiny" or "substantive due process," yields a list of snippets from case transcripts that link to the corresponding audio.

"No other site boasts such functionality," said Chicago-Kent Dean Harold J. Krent, noting the Oyez Project's high popularity among English-language websites.

Founded and directed by political scientist Jerry Goldman, the site also provides written summaries of Supreme Court cases and holdings, detailed biographies and voting records of Supreme Court justices, links to written opinions, and a virtual tour of the Supreme Court building.

"With the Oyez Project," said Dean Krent, "Chicago-Kent leverages the power of the Internet to deliver a unique legal resource to students, scholars, lawyers, jurists, legislators, teachers and countless others who are interested in the dynamics of the U.S. Supreme Court."

The site will soon make its content more widely accessible to mobile users via apps for iPads and handheld devices. iPhone apps for selected content are already available.

Chicago-Kent plans to utilize the research of its students and faculty in further content development, capitalizing on its faculty's broad-based scholarship on the U.S. Supreme Court, the justice system and the Constitution.

"Bringing the Oyez Project to Chicago-Kent allows us to expand our initiatives at the forefront of law and technology," said Dean Krent. "It also presents a valuable opportunity for our law school to reach out to a larger community and for our students to work on Supreme Court projects knowing that their work will be viewed far and wide."

Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. With more than 1,100 students, Chicago-Kent offers full-time and part-time J.D. and LL.M. degree programs as well as joint-degree programs with other IIT units, including Stuart School of Business.