Legal Resources: Federal

Click on the headings below to view suggested resources.

Articles & eResources

LexisNexis Congressional

Public Laws: Click the "Laws" menu. Then click "Public Laws" or "Public Laws by number". Laws from 1988 (100th Congress, second session) forward are available.
US Code: Click the "Laws" menu. Then "United States Code" Or "United States Code citation". Searching options for the United States Code include either doing a full text keyword search, or searching by citation number.
Code of Federal Regulations: Click "Regulations." Then click "Code of Federal Regulations" to do a keyword search. All current titles (plus new regulations within two weeks of being published in the Federal Register) are available. The other choices allow you to search by CFR citation number or by statutory authority (law number).
Federal Register: Click "Regulations" then "Federal Register" to search the full text back to July 1, 1980 by keyword. Retrieval by CFR or FR citation number is also available.
Supreme Court Cases: Click on "Legal Resources" then "Federal Case Law". Keyword and additional terms search the full text. Make sure to select Supreme Court Cases in the "Source" pull down menu. Full text opinions of all Supreme Court cases since 1790. In addition, all dispositions of cases that were appealed to the Supreme Court are included.
Court of Appeals: Click on "Legal Resources" then "Federal Case Law". Keyword and additional terms search the full text. Make sure to select "Court of Appeals" in the "Source" pull down menu.

Thomas

Available from the 1995 (104th Congress) forward, Thomas provides lists of major legislation passed in to laws, laws by law number and laws by bill number. The link brings up a list of bills, which gives access to either the bill summary, related congressional materials, or the full text of the bill.

GPO Access

Public Laws: Scroll down list to highlight database you wish to search. Has the full text of the version of bills, from 1995 (104th Congress) forward, signed into law by the President. In addition to searching the full text, you can also retrieve the list of all the public laws passed within a Congress, (Catalogs of available Public Laws). For each title there is a link to the full text in either TEXT or PDF format.
Code of Federal Regulations: This site started in October 1996 with parts from titles 21, 22, and 40. Titles will be added continually as their print counterparts are updated. The text at this site is an official version of the CFR. You can search all of the available titles, selected titles, or retrieve text by citation information (title and part number).
Federal Register: Available from 1995 forward with the ability to search by year within section of the publication. Helpful Hints, provides instructions for searching the database.
Unified Agenda: These searchable versions, from 1994 forward, are found on the list of databases; scroll down and select Unified Agenda, then enter a search phrase or term.
Supreme Court: Database of decisions from 1937-1975

Books & Library Materials

Many of the print sources listed below can also be found online. See the above section for access tips.

United States Statutes at Large

Public Laws as passed by Congress (chronological). Bills signed into law are first published as Slip Laws Which are retained in the collection until republished in the Statutes at Large.

United States Code

The official compilation of the public laws in force, the general and permanent laws of the United States. It is a subject arrangement (instead of chronological) of the laws reflecting all additions, deletions and revisions at the time of publication. The print edition is updated once every six years with annual supplements that document current changes.

United States Code Annotated

Subject arrangement of laws with annotations and notes of decisions.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

Contains the cumulative regulations in force at the time of publication. The CFR is divided into 50 titles, which represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation. The 50 "titles" are updated on a rotating basis over a one-year period.

Federal Register

A daily publication that contains all proposed changes (additions, deletions and updates) to the Code of Federal Regulations plus presidential and other materials. The current years are available in documents [U.S. AE 2.106:]. Earlier volumes are kept on microfiche.

United States Reports

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the judicial branch of the U.S. government. Its main activity is as the court of last resort exercising appellate jurisdiction over cases involving federal law. The official print version of Supreme Court Decisions is the United States Reports or U.S. Reports.

Bluebook

Guide to citing legal sources.

American Law Reports (ALR)

Contains selected appellate court decisions. Its editors scan all current decisions and select what they think will be the leading cases. The editorial essays that follow each case are a valuable research tool. Selected cases are included from areas of the United States.

Black's law dictionary

dictionary of modern legal usage

Guide to American law : everyone's legal encyclopedia

West's Encyclopedia Of American Law

Websites

Bankruptcy Attorney from LexisNexis

Cornell Law School

Click on "Supreme Court" for database of decisions. Click on U.S. Code for to search the Code by Title and section, i.e. Title 7 Agriculture. Also contains the Popular Names Index, a list of common names for legislative acts, i.e. Honeybee Act.