U.S. Court Opinions, Court Rules, Other Judicial Material & the Courts

U.S. Supreme Court

• Willamette Law Online: “same-day summaries of certiorari granted, oral arguments, and decisions;” arranged by date, from 2002.
• docket from the Supreme Court: searchable.
• docket and news in On the Docket, from Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.
• Dates of Supreme Court Decisions and Arguments, United States Reports Volumes 2-107 (1791-1882) from the Supreme Court. A useful list for citation purposes because the early reporters did not include the year of decisions.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Decisions

Other Federal Courts

• LexisNexis Academic: all dates, searchable. UW Restricted
• Justia, US Court of Appeals Cases & Opinions: 1950-date, searchable.
• OpenJurist: all dates, free, searchable.
• Public Library of Law: appellate cases, 1950-date, searchable
• lexisONE: searchable, last five years, registration required.
• Cornell Legal Information Institute: searchable, coverage varies.
• Findlaw: searchable, coverage varies.
• See also U.S. Directories–Courts, below.

Court Rules

Cornell LII

Cornell Legal Info

U.S. Laws, Legislation & the Congress

U.S. Constitution

• Constitution from Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.
• LexisNexis Academic: searchable, annotated. UW Restricted
• U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation by the Congressional Research Service from GPO Access: searchable, includes discussion and references to significant cases. Cornell’s Legal Information Institute offers an easier-to-use hyperlinked version (updated through 2000 supp.).
• The Founders’ Constitution from the University of Chicago Press: a collection of full-text documents compiled by constitutional scholars Philip B. Kurland & Ralph Lerner, searchable.
• Farrand’s Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, from the Library of Congress.
• Elliot’s Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, from the Library of Congress.
• The Federalist Papers, from Yale Law School’s Avalon Project: searchable.
• The Federalist Papers, from Thomas: arranged by number.

Bills & Resolutions: Legislation being considered by Congress

• bills and bill status from Thomas: searchable, from 1993.
• bills from GPO Access: searchable, from 1993.
• bills and bill status from LexisNexis Congressional: searchable, from 1989. UW Restricted

Public Laws: Laws passed by Congress & signed by the President, in date order

Slip laws

• Thomas: arranged by Congress then public law number, from 1973 (93d Congress).
• GPO Access: searchable, from 1995 (104th Congress).
• Authenticated public and private laws from GPO Access: searchable, from 2007. (Digitally signed and certified)
• classification tables from the Office of the Law Revision Counsel: provides U.S. Code citations for public laws and U.S. Code sections affected by recently enacted laws.

U.S. Statutes at Large: slip laws organized by Congress and session

• GPO Access: searchable, vol. 117 (2003-04).
• Hein Online: searchable, with lists by popular name, Indian treaties, and other treaties, from 1789. UW Restricted
• Library of Congress: 1789-1875 (vols. 1-18, 1st-43d Congresses).

U.S. Code: Laws in force arranged by subject

• GPO Access: searchable, 1994 & 2000 editions, with supplements.
• GPO Access: browsable by title, chapter, and section, current edition.
• US House of Representatives: current edition, with supplements, in PDF; arranged by title number. Caution: many of these files are extremely large.
• Cornell’s Legal Information Institute: searchable, current edition.
• Findlaw; searchable, current edition.
• Office of Law Revision Counsel: searchable, current edition. Also US Code Popular Name Tool.
• U.S. Code Service from LexisNexis Academic and LexisNexis Congressional: searchable, annotated. UW Restricted

See also the Gallagher guide on Federal Legislative History.

Online Legal Research

1. American Law Sources On-Line (ALSO!), includes links to search engines for each State and Territory, Amicus Curiae Briefs, Uniform Laws and Model Acts, Scholarly Publications, and others.
2. Georgetown University Law Center, Free & Low Cost Legal Research.
3. MegaLaw.com, Legal Research Search Engine.
4. Pace Law School, Free and Low Cost Resources for Legal Research.
5. Thurgood Marshall Law Library, Guide to Legal Research, 2009-2010 (with links to PDF versions of the entire Guide).
6. University of Chicago Law School, Legal Research Using the Internet, by Lyonette Louis-Jacques.
7. University of Washington School of Law, Introduction to Legal Research on the World Wide Web

BASIC LEGAL CITATION: WHAT AND WHY?

What is “legal citation”? It is a standard language that allows one writer to refer to legal authorities with sufficient precision and generality that others can follow the references.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

Thurgood Marshall Law Library Guide to Legal Research,
2009 – 2010

http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/researchguides/TMLLguide/index.html