Legal resources - United States

Indexes & Abstracts & Metasites

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (ISU only) - Search federal and state legal news, law reviews, codes and regulations, and case law.
GPO Access - Search United States codes and regulations, bills, the Congressional Record, and other official government information.
Guide to Law online ( U.S. Law Library of Congress) - Annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online,
Legal Information Institute (Cornell Univ., Law School) - Resource for web based legal information.
FindLaw (independent division of West Group.) - Comprehensive guide to legal information.
The National Agricultural Law Center (U. of Arkansas) - links to major statutes, regulations, case law, Federal Register Digest reports, Center-published research articles, notes and bibliographies, government publications, Congressional publications, and numerous other research resources on topics related to agricultural and food law.
Thomas (Library of Congress, 1973-) - Legislative information
Westlaw Campus (ISU only) - Search law reviews, federal and state codes and regulations, and case law.

Constitution of the United States of America

GPO Access - Includes amendments, proposed amendments that were not ratified, and an analytical index..
Legal Information Institute (Cornell) - An easy-to-use HTML version without annotations.

Code/Statutes

Once a law is signed by the President, it is assigned a public law number and issued in print. At the end of each session of Congress, the laws are arranged in chronological order and printed in volumes called the Statutes at Large. They are also incorporated into the United States Code which arranges laws by subject (Title).

United States Code - Updated in print format every 6 years. Organizes laws currently in effect into 50 topics. (more info about United States Code) Browse or search via
- GPO Access (1994 ed. -) Supports searching by Statutes at Large citation. (Help on United States Code)
- Legal Information Institute (Cornell) - (most recent version only) Includes an table of popular names.
- U.S. House of Representatives (1988 ed.-)
Statutes at Large, (1789-1873) (Library of Congress) - Every public and private law enacted by Congress is published in the Statutes at Large in order by the date of passage. Also includes amendments to the Constitution, presidential proclamation, and until 1948 treaties and international agreements.
Public and Private Laws - There is no current Statutes at Large database. The text of laws published as public laws and Statutes at Large are the same. (More information on public and private laws) Search via:
- GPO Access (103rd Congress, 1993-) - Supports searching by keyword, bill number or Statutes at Large citation. Updated daily. (Help on public and private laws)
- LexisNexis Congressional
- Thomas (101st Congress, 1989- ) - Search by keyword or bill number.
- U.S. National Archives (103rd Congress, 1st session-, 1993-) - Browse chronological lists of Public Laws from current and past sessions.

Administrative Law

The Executive Branch is responsible for implementing laws that have been enacted. Agencies issue regulations, guidelines, opinions to ensure that the intent of the law is implemented. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is the official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules, and Notices of Federal agencies, as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents.

Code of Federal Regulations - via
- GPO Access (1996-) - Browse or search the entire database or specific volumes and titles.
- LexisNexis Academic (1981-) - (ISU only) Select "Legal Research" and then choose "Federal Regulations"
Federal Register
- GPO Access 1994-, vol. 59-) - The official online edition. Search full text or browse tables of contents. TOC from the current issue is available on the day of publication.
- LexisNexis Academic (1980-) - (ISU only) Select "Legal Research" and then choose "Federal Regulations"

Case Law

U.S. Supreme Court

Opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States are published officially in books called the United States Reports. In case of discrepancies between the print and electronic versions of a bench opinion, the print version controls. (more about the U.S. Supreme Court)

Opinions (2000-) Opinions are posted within hours of being issued. They remain posted until the bound United States Reports is published. Chronological listing.
United States Reports (1991-, vol. 502-) PDF files of the full text from cover through index.
Supreme Court Decisions (1937-1975) Created by the Air Force, this is not an official version of the Supreme Court's opinions.
Findlaw (1893-) Browse by year and US Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full text..

U.S. Courts of Appeals & Federal District Courts

There are 94 U.S. district courts and 13 judicial circuits, each with a court of appeals.. Opinions of the district courts are published in the Federal Supplement and opinions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals are published officially in books called the Federal Reporter . Web content varies by court. but most include opinions, calendar, rules, forms and statistics.

Map - Showing circuit courts with links
U.S. Courts Links - (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)

Related Information

Bluebook - Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (2003 ed.) by Peter W. Martin (Cornell Law School). This authoritative reference work lays out the form of citation that is followed in legal writing.
How a Bill Becomes Law - via
- Ben's Guide (GPO) - How Laws are Made. versions for all grade levels.
- Lexis-Nexis Congressional (ISU only) - Click on "Help" and see the section on "Legislative Process".
- Library of Congress
  - How Our Laws Are Made. Revised and Updated by Charles W. Johnson, Parliamentarian, United States House of Representatives.
    June 30, 2003.
  - Enactment of a Law.. By Robert B. Dove, Parliamentarian, United States Senate. Updated February 1997.
- U.S. House of Representatives - Tying It All Together. A summary explanation of how the legislative process works.
- U.S. Senate - Learning About the Legislative Process includes a flowchart, descriptions of the legislative process, and Senate rules and procedures.
Law Reviews Online - Includes only electronic law journals offering free and complete access to the full text of articles and notes. Journals offering only promotional information, tables of contents, or abstracts are omitted.

revised 12/29/2003

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