This variable contains the day, month, and year that the case was orally argued before the Court. dateArgument has no entry for cases that were not orally argued. For volumes 2-107 of the U.S. Reports (1791–1882), we used Dates of Supreme Court Decisions and Arguments (supremecourt.gov/opinions/datesofdecisions.pdf), prepared by Anne Ashmore of the Library of the Supreme Court, because many of the early reports do not list the date of argument.

On some occasions, oral argument extended over more than a single day. In such cases, only the first date is specified.