Home • Welcome to ALSO!
About This Site
Search Function
   This Site WWW   Go to Google
[UNIT FLAG]  American  Law  Sources  On-line 
Census Bureau QuickFacts 
 
United States — Law
  
 Courts of Appeals 
 District Courts
 Special Courts
 Constitution
 Congressional Bills 
 Public Laws
 U.S. Code
 Court Rules
 Administrative Law 
 Uniform Laws
 Interstate Compacts 
 International Law 
  
Reviewed 15 July 2012  E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

United States Supreme Court Decisions

Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute provides the best access to cases from 1990 forward. (See sources below for earlier cases.) The court provides its decisions from the current term and past three terms. The complete contents of bound volumes of United States Reports, starting with volume 502 (1991) can be downloaded in PDF files (one LARGE file per volume) from the court’s web site. However, the most-recent volume in that collection is several years behind the current term.

    These forms connect to the FindLaw (West Group) database:
      U.S.      (from 150 U.S. 54 to current)
    Browse by Year:        Browse by Volume: 
      
     

      

    Additional Resources

    NOTE—Opinions (and orders and other documents) issued by the Supreme Court are published officially in United States Reports (“U.S.” in citations). See 28 U.S.C. § 411; see also information about opinions at the court’s web site. Opinions are issued during the court’s regular term, which starts the first Monday in October and ends in late June or early July.

    NOTE—The dates of decisions do not appear beneath the case name in the first 107 volumes of United States Reports (1791–1882). Dates for those cases can be found in a list (168 pages) compiled by Supreme Court librarians.

    Search Supreme Court order lists … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — Search a database containing actions of the Supreme Court as described in its regular Monday order lists, beginning with the first order list issued in October of 1998 and continuing through the most recent order list issued by the court. Order lists contain information on which cases the court agrees to hear (cases for which the court “grants certiorari”) or decides to let stand as they were decided in a lower court (cases in which the court “denies certiorari”) as well as a variety of decisions about procedural matters, about how cases are to be heard and argued, about the filing of briefs, and about other administrative matters.
    ¶ Current and Recent Opinions
  1. Recent Supreme Court opinions (from 5/90) … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — A topical index based on the syllabi is available.
  2. Summaries of Cases in the Supreme Court … [Willamette Univ. Coll. of Law] — This service provides same-day summaries (from 2002 forward) of certiorari granted, oral arguments, and decisions published by the Supreme Court. The certiorari summaries focus on the facts and decision from the lower court. The week prior to oral arguments, the service provides an outline of the issues presented to the court as argued in the briefs. The decision summaries provide the holding from the court and a brief overview of the court’s reasoning. A free e-mail subscription is available (to receive the summaries by e-mail).
  3. ¶ Historic Opinions
  4. Selected historic Supreme Court opinions … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — Almost 600 historically important cases accessible by topics, party names, and opinion authors, beginning with Georgia v. Brailsford, 3 U.S. 1 (1794).
  5. Supreme Court opinions (1937–1975) … [U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, NTIS, FedWorld (Va.)] — Cases from 300 U.S. 1 through 422 U.S., in ASCII files. These are difficult to read because TEXTS ARE ALL UPPERCASE.
  6. Seminal Supreme Court Cases Regarding Federal Indian Law… [Wisconsin Judicare, Inc.] — Links (to the FindLaw database) for the texts of “many of the Supreme Court decisions which have shaped and influenced Indian Law. These cases are listed in chronological order.”
  7. liibulletin … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — Free subscription to receive periodic e-mailed collections of case syllabi (prepared by the Reporter of Decisions) promptly after decisions are issued.
    The Curiae Project … [Yale Law Sch.] — “The Curiae Project provides Supreme Court records and briefs and other relevant materials free of charge on the Internet. Cases are selected for addition to the site based on a ranking developed from citation data in historical and constitutional texts.”
    Government Briefs … [Justice Dep’t] — A collection of briefs filed by the solicitor general (except in response to in forma pauperis petitions) in cases in the Supreme Court.
    Supreme Court oral arguments, judgments, and opinions … [Northwestern Univ. (Ill.)] — Audio files in RealAudio format (which requires a free downloadable player as a browser plug-in), providing actual oral argument as well as judgment and opinions as delivered in the courtroom, for selected cases.
    Overview of recent terms … [Washington Post] — Summaries of major cases decided in recent terms, including background stories and links to relevant laws and related Supreme Court decisions, plus the court’s docket.


Top

United States Courts of Appeals Decisions

See also special courts’ decisions below. See a table of the federal judicial circuits showing each court’s location (city) and included districts (states).
  1. Decisions at Court Web Sites
    1. Regular Decisions
    2. Bankruptcy Appellate Panels

      For BAP opinions in other circuits, see the page for regular opinions, linked in the drop-down list above. For background information, see the Wikipedia article on bankruptcy appellate panels.

  2. Decisions From Other Sources
    1. Google Scholar … In this search interface, one can enter a citation — which must be to the first page of a case report — or a party’s name, and a link to the desired case report is returned. (Select “Legal opinions and journals” before starting a search.) Text searching also is possible. The search results include links to later case reports in which the targeted case is cited. In the targeted case report, page breaks from the original printed volume are indicated, at the level of a line of text (which makes this source useful for serious legal research). In many instances, links also are provided, within the case report being examined, to reports of cases that are cited in it.
    2. Federal Reporter Series (F., F.2d, F.3d)

      These case reports are provided on the Public.Resource.Org web site. Reports in the first series of Federal Reporter (F.) are also available but are difficult to deal with. All of these case reports fail to indicate page breaks in the original printed volume.

    Additional Resources
    ¶ Regular Decisions — Alternative Sources … [Georgetown Univ. Law Center (D.C.); Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law (Pa.)]
    ¶ Courts of appeals decisions at FindLaw (West Group) … Cases can be found by party names, by docket number, or by month-and-year of decision; but cases cannot be retrieved by citation (e.g., “73 F.3d 1”). Free access goes back through the mid-1990s (varies slightly by circuit). There is a text-search function.
    ¶ 3rd Circuit: Precedential Opinions and Nonprecedential Opinions … These are opinions from the previous 30 days.
    ¶ 9th Circuit: Summaries of Cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals … [Willamette Univ. Coll. of Law] — This service provides weekly summaries of cases (from 2004 forward) published by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. A free e-mail subscription is available (to receive the weekly summaries by e-mail).
    Map of the Circuits
    Circuit assignments of Supreme Court Justices … An Adobe Acrobat file provided by the Supreme Court.
    Public Access to Court Electronic Records … [Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts] — How to access the appellate bulletin board system for slip opinions downloadable from all of the courts of appeals (as well as information on other services).


Top

United States District Court Decisions

 [See under state listings]

    Additional Resources
    U.S. District Court Opinions and Orders (from 2004 on) … [Justia, Inc. (Cal.)] — This web page enables searching for cases and orders by party names as well as by keywords in texts. The database covers cases and orders from district courts throughout the United States, in the period from January 1, 2004, to the current date.
    CourtWeb … [U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania] — This web site provides information on selected recent rulings of those judges who have elected to make information available in this form. Participating courts (which are not numerous) are located in several states.
    Civil Cases Database (from 1987 on) … [Theodore Eisenberg & Kevin M. Clermont, Cornell Law School (N.Y.)] — Searchable database of various statistical facts (not the actual facts in the cases) derived from millions of civil cases concluded in all of the U.S. district courts since 1987 (as explained on the main page).
    Public Access to Court Electronic Records … [Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts] — Information on how to obtain case information and dockets, downloadable for a fee, directly from the courts (including bankruptcy courts).


Top

United States Special Court Decisions

See a table of former special federal courts and the present successor courts.


Top

United States Constitution

    Additional Resources
    Alternative On-line Versions
  1. Constitution … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.]
  2. Constitution … [Nat’l Archives & Records Admin. (D.C.)] — Original text showing which portions have been superseded by amendments (with hyperlinks to the amendments). Includes biographical sketches of the signers and other delegates to the convention; graphical images of the original four pages and letter of transmittal; a description of the constitutional convention; FAQs about the constitution; and links to the Bill of Rights and the other amendments, as well as the Declaration of Independence.
  3. Constitution … [Nat’l Constitution Center (Pa.)]
  4. Constitution … [USConstitution.net (Vt.)] — This web site presents the text in several ways. In addition, it presents considerable information about the Constitution, including a page devoted to some popular misconceptions about what is (and is not) in the text.
  5. Annotated Constitution … Annotations were written by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress and include citations to relevant Supreme Court decisions. (Some of the Constitution’s provisions and amendments have no annotations.) See also links to other commentary on the Constitution, including The Federalist.
  6. Annotated Constitution … [Gov’t Printing Office (D.C.)] — This is a collection of numerous PDF files covering two complete editions (1992 and 2002) of the annotations together with biennial supplements. (Some of the files are very large.)
  7. Annotated Constitution … [Cornell Law Sch. / Legal Information Inst.] — Well-formatted HTML presentation of the 1992 edition (as supplemented biennially) with hyperlinks to sources cited in annotations.
  8. Annotated Constitution … [FindLaw (West Group)] — Well-formatted HTML presentation of the 1992 edition (as supplemented biennially) with hyperlinks to sources cited in annotations.
  9. Amendments
  10. Amendments With Notes on Ratification  [Gov’t Printing Office (D.C.)] — This is a section from the 2002 edition of the annotated Constitution presenting texts of the 27 ratified amendments together with notes on the ratification history of the first 10 amendments (the Bill of Rights) and each subsequent amendment.
  11. Proposed Amendments Not Ratified … [Gov’t Printing Office (D.C.)] — This is a section from the 2002 edition of the annotated Constitution presenting texts of unratified amendments. “During the course of our history, in addition to the 27 amendments that have been ratified by the required three-fourths of the States, six other amendments have been submitted to the States but have not been ratified by them. [¶] Beginning with the proposed Eighteenth Amendment, Congress has customarily included a provision requiring ratification within seven years from the time of the submission to the States. The Supreme Court in Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433 (1939), declared that the question of the reasonableness of the time within which a sufficient number of States must act is a political question to be determined by the Congress.”
  12. Supreme Court Constitutional Decisions … [Gov’t Printing Office (D.C.)] — Citations, in the 2002 edition of the annotated Constitution, to decisions of the Supreme Court based on constitutional grounds, classified in the following categories:
  13. Unconstitutional Acts of Congress … Showing issue(s) decided and constitutional provision(s) in question, as well as justices’ separate opinions.
  14. Unconstitutional State Laws … Including state constitutional provisions, state statutes, and municipal ordinances. Showing issue(s) decided and constitutional provision(s) in question, as well as justices’ separate opinions.
  15. Overruled Decisions
  16. Translated Versions
  17. Collections
  18. ConstitutionFacts.com: … Translated into French; Russian; Spanish.
  19. National Constitution Center: … Translated into Arabic; Chinese (simplified); French; German; Italian; Japanese; Korean; Portuguese; Russian; Spanish.
  20. French: Constitution des États-Unis d’Amérique … [Wikipedia—French Version] — This text includes amendments through the 27th Amendment and is reproduced from a now-defunct page at a web site formerly maintained by the U.S. State Department.
  21. Spanish: Constitución de los Estados Unidos de America … [Georgetown Univ. (D.C.)] — This text includes amendments through the 27th Amendment. The Spanish version of Wikipedia provides another version, but without amendments, and separately provides La Carta de Derechos (the Bill of Rights).
  22. Constitution in Downloadable File
  23. Constitution … [U.S. Coast Guard Chief Counsel]
  24. Constitution … [Ria Press (location unknown)] — The text along with the first 10 amendments (Bill of Rights), specially formatted for printing.


Top

United States Legislation

See also United States Code below. For the most-current information, see the Library of Congress Link to THOMAS site.
  1. Bills — Texts

    Bills — Summaries and Status

    Linked here are bill texts, which can be browsed or searched, starting with the 101st Congress (1989–1990), and bill summaries and status, which can be searched, starting with the 93rd Congress (1973–1974).
  2. Public Laws

    Linked here are texts of public laws, along with other information, starting with the 101st Congress (1989–1990), as well as limited information but no texts, starting the 93rd Congress (1973–1974). To search texts of public laws, select  Enrolled bills sent to the President on the search form accessible through the Search button above. (Note that an enrolled bill could be vetoed, in which case it would not become a law. The Library of Congress’s web site provides information about what is an enrolled bill and about the President’s veto power.)
  3. SessionLaw No.
      Pub. L. No. 
     in 
    This form links to a Government Printing Office database that might not include the most-recent legislation, for a short time after enactment. (The GPO server sometimes is very slow to respond.) Try the Thomas database if this form fails to return the law in question.

    Additional Resources
    See also selected commentary on U.S. legislation linked on another page.

    NOTE—Public laws enacted by Congress (and the few occasional private laws) are published officially in United States Statutes at Large (“Stat.” in citations) by the National Archives and Records Administration. See a link for an explanation, “About Public and Private Laws,” on the GPO web site. See also lists showing bill number, public law number, name of act, approval date, and Statutes at Large page citation and span (but no text links) for both the current session and also past sessions back through Pub. L. No. 103-1 (1993).
         An historical outline and source notes for United States statutes, prepared by Richard J. McKinney, Assistant Law Librarian for the Federal Reserve Board, shows how the process of publishing federal statutes has changed over time since 1789. Volume 18 of the Statutes at Large (1878) contains, in Part I, the Revised Statutes of the United States (“R.S.” in citations), which was a compilation of all federal laws as of December 1, 1873, with amendments enacted in 1874–1877. (It was the precursor of the United States Code.) The Library of Congress provides images of all 1,394 pages of the revised statutes contained in part I of volume 18 of the Statutes at Large, including an index. Acts of Congress make reference to the revised statutes from time to time, when amendments of current versions are enacted.

    United States Statutes at Large (1789–Present) … [Constitution Society (Tex.)] — These are text-searchable PDF files. Each file contains one entire volume of the Statutes at Large; therefore, downloading a file could take a significant amount of time. (Volumes 6, 7, and 8 are omitted.)
    United States Statutes at Large, Volumes 1–18 (1789–1875) … [Library of Congress] — These are available as digital facsimile images accompanied by searchable indexes and page headings.
    United States Statutes at Large, Volumes 65–116 (1951–2002) and Volumes 117–Present (2003–Present)… [Gov’t Printing Office (D.C.)]
    Popular Name Table … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — List of popular names of federal acts (e.g., the Securities Act of 1933, or the Trademark Act) and codified statutes, with appropriate links.
    Public Law Electronic Notification Service (PENS) … To receive free e-mail notification from the National Archives and Records Administration each time NARA assigns a public law number to a newly enacted law, join the PUBLAWS-L list (a LISTSERV list).
    Catalog of Public and Private Laws … [National Archives and Records Administration] — Lists of public laws (as well as the relatively few private laws) that are available in electronic files, with links, organized by session of Congress, back through the 104th Congress (1995–1996). Not every session of Congress enacts private laws.
    U.S. Code Classification Tables … [U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel] — Files showing where sections of public laws (except Pub. L. No. 106-554, Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001) are classified to the U.S. Code, back through the 104th Congress (1995-1996).
    ¶ Congressional Bills … [Gov’t Printing Office (D.C.)] — The GPO database of bill texts, back through the 103rd Congress (1993–1994) can be browsed or searched.

    Top
  4. United States Code

    The Cornell/LII version presents the most-recent version of the House of Representatives database with a user-friendly interface (and different search function). The House of Representatives database is searchable only (cannot be browsed).

    A title-specific search form is on the table-of-contents page of each title. There is also a form to search the entire code (not recommended). Titles marked with an asterisk (*) have been enacted into positive law (see the note in Additional Resources below). These links go to the Cornell/LII version of the code. Some titles include an appendix containing additional statutory provisions and, in some cases, rules of courts.

    The Bankruptcy Code is title 11.
    The Internal Revenue Code is title 26.
    The Uniform Code of Military Justice starts at 10 U.S.C. § 801.
  5. TitleSection   NOTE—The section number is case-sensitive (e.g., “104a” will not retrieve Section 104A).
    U.S.C. §

    Additional Resources

    NOTE—Most public laws are reflected in the United States Code (“U.S.C.” in citations), which is a topical compilation, in 50 titles, of the major part of Congressional legislation. See an explanatory comment on the code by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel in the House of Representatives, including dates for the current supplements to the most-recent edition of the code. Cornell Law School’s LII database automatically provides access to amendments from Pub. L. No. 104-1 (1995) forward. The texts of the code titles that have been enacted into positive law (see the drop-down selection list, above) constitute legal evidence of the law contained in those titles. The remaining titles of the code are prima facie evidence of the laws contained in them; the laws themselves constitute the legal (unimpeachable) evidence of their content. See 1 U.S.C. § 204. There is a plan to enact additional titles into positive law, which could raise the number of separate titles in the code to 55 (or more).

    Download U.S. Code Titles and Chapters … [U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel] — Each title is available in a zipped text file, or any chapter in a title can be downloaded in a plain text file.
    U.S. Code Derivation Tables … [U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Law Revision Counsel] — Files showing where sections of the U.S. Code are derived from public laws (except Pub. L. No. 106-554, Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2001), back through the 104th Congress (1995-1996).
    ¶ [Title 8] Aliens and Nationality … [John Walker (Switzerland)] — Not current but an extraordinarily versatile rendition of this title of the code, containing many research aids including hyperlinks for cross-references and several ways to search the title.
    ¶ [Title 26] Internal Revenue Code … [John Walker (Switzerland)] — Not current but an extraordinarily versatile rendition of the code, containing many research aids including hyperlinks for section cross-references and several ways to search the I.R.C.
    ¶ Appendices to U.S. Code Titles
  6. Servicemembers Civil Relief Act [50 U.S.C. App. § 501 et seq.] This was formerly titled the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act of 1940; it was renamed and reorganized in 2003 [see Pub. L. No. 108-189 (Dec. 19, 2003)]. See the following: (1) an advisory letter from the Comptroller of the Currency to national banks; (2) a Q-and-A brochure for service members by the North Carolina State Bar.
  7. Uniform Code of Military Justice … [Coast Guard Chief Counsel]
    Federal Trade Commission — Related Acts … Descriptive summaries, with links to Cornell Law School’s LII database, for 37 acts under which the FTC has enforcement and administrative responsibilities.


Top

United States Rules of Procedure and Practice

The Administrative Office of the Courts provides access to current (pending) and past rules amendments. On-line versions of court rules might not reflect the most-recent amendments. The AOC site should always be checked.

  1. Supreme Court Rules (U.S. Sup. Ct. R.)
    The Court’s rules are available in PDF files. The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School provides the rules in HTML files along with a search function.
  2. Rules of the Circuit Courts of Appeal
  3. Rules of Bankruptcy Appellate Panels
  4. Rules of Procedure
    See also rule amendments linked under “Additional Resources” below.

    For the “Supplemental Rules for Certain Admiralty and Maritime Claims” (which are lettered as rule A, rule B, and so forth: cited as “Fed. R. Civ. P., Supp. R. A” for example), open the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure linked in this drop-down list. The supplemental rules are at the end, after the appendix of forms following rule 86.
  5. Rules for Special Courts
  6. Additional Resources

    NOTE—See an explanation of the rulemaking process on the web site of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

    Researching Rules Amendments … [Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts] — Giving a comprehensive view of amendment activity, this site “provides access to the national and local rules currently in effect in the federal courts, as well as background information on the federal rules and the rulemaking process.”
    ¶ Klein, Christopher M., Bankruptcy Rules Made Easy (2001): A Guide to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure That Apply in Bankruptcy, 75 Am. Bankr. L. J. 35 (2001). … [Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts]
    ¶ 6th Circuit: Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Practice Manual
    ¶ 7th Circuit: Standards for Professional Conduct … [S.D. Ind.]
    ¶ Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims: Rules of Admission and Practice
    [Rules in Downloadable Files]
    ¶ Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure … [Harvard Funding, Inc. (Tex.)] — Zipped ASCII text file, RPPUSTC.ZIP (87KB).
    ¶ Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims … Internal operating procedures (26KB).

  7. Rules for Military Courts
  8. Additional Resources
    Official Department of the Army Administrative Publications — Legal Services
    Army Regulation 27-10, Military Justice
    ¶ Criminal Law Deskbook (2010): Vol. 1, Procedure; Vol. 2, Crimes and Defenses … [Library of Congress] — “The Criminal Law Department at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, US Army, (TJAGLCS) produces this deskbook as a resource for Judge Advocates, both in training and in the field, and for use by other military justice practitioners. This deskbook covers many aspects of military justice, including procedure (Volume I) and substantive criminal law (Volume II). Military justice practitioners and military justice managers are free to reproduce as many paper copies as needed.”
    Manual for Courts-Martial.
    ¶ Rules of Practice Before Army Courts-Martial … These rules can be found in Military Judges’ Benchbook, Appendix G.

  9. Model Jury Instructions
    These are linked on another page.
  10. Rules of Practice
    1. Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees … This covers staff attorneys, law clerks, and all other employees of the judicial branch, except judges (see below) and public defenders (see below).
    2. Code of Conduct for Federal Public Defender Employees … This covers staff attorneys and all other employees of the federal public defender office. (The link here points to the Internet Archive, which has the version of the code that formerly was published on the web site of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.)
    3. Code of Conduct for United States JudgesPublished Advisory Opinions


Top

United States International Law

See also a guide to electronic resources for international law, provided by the American Society of International Law.

  1. Treaties in Force: A List of Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States in Force as of January 1, 2000 … [U.S. State Department. Office of Treaty Affairs] — This link opens a page showing the tables of contents of five PDF files.
  2. Private International Law Database … [U.S. State Department. Office of the Legal Adviser, Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law.] — For specific subject areas (see below), this site shows (1) multilateral conventions that are currently in force for the United States, for which the United States has deposited an instrument of ratification, (2) multilateral conventions that are currently under consideration with respect to eventual ratification and passage of domestic implementing legislation, but which the United States has not yet ratified, (3) significant multilateral treaties and conventions to which the United States is not a party (these instruments are not currently under consideration for eventual ratification), and (4) other international instruments, such as model laws, agreed principles, and guides. See also the web site of the Hague Conference on Private International Law for texts of all conventions on private international law.
  3. Family Law
  4. International Judicial Assistance
  5. Trade and Business Transactions Law
  6. Wills, Trusts, and Estates
  7. “The purpose of this web site is to provide a convenient location to find treaties in force for the United States, other international instruments, and information on current negotiations and projects covering the private international law of such areas as trade and commerce, finance and banking, trusts and estates, family and children matters, and international judicial assistance. … This web site also offers a convenient location to find links to the web sites maintained by the major intergovernmental organizations concerned with the unification and development of private international law . . . .”

    Additional Resources
    Legislative Activity on Treaties … [U.S. Senate] — Information on treaties received, treaties on the executive calendar, treaties approved, and other treaty status actions, by the Senate in the current session of Congress.
    Treaty Actions … [U.S. State Department, Office of Treaty Affairs] — Summarized information on treaty actions month-by-month for each year. Status information on treaties is also published in a special section of every fourth-to-sixth issue of the State Department’s weekly magazine, Dispatch.
    Digest of Treaties of Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service … Treaties between the United States and other countries, on subjects connected with functions of the Fish and Wildlife Service, are briefly described, and various related sources (such as public laws implementing treaties) are cited, but links to treaty texts and related sources are not provided.


Top

United States Administrative Law Sources

  1. Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders (1945–1989) … [National Archives and Records Administration] — The Office of the Federal Register presents this online version of the Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders, April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989. The paper version of this publication is out of print. This codification provides, in one reference source, proclamations and executive orders with general applicability and continuing effect. It covers April 13, 1945, through January 20, 1989, spanning the administrations of Harry S. Truman through Ronald Reagan.
  2. Additional Resources
    Disposition of Executive Orders of the President (E.O.) … [National Archives and Records Administration] — Starting with E.O. 7532 (Jan. 8, 1937) by Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, these tables contain locator information (Federal Register citation), current status, and other information about executive orders. Some of the more-recent executive orders can be accessed through links. Note that access is available (see below on this page) to issues of the Federal Register back through volume 60 (1995).
    Compilation of Presidential Documents … [National Archives and Records Administration] — The Compilation of Presidential Documents is published weekly by the Office of the Federal Register. It contains statements, messages, and other Presidential materials released by the White House. For 2009 and later years, materials are available also in electronic format on a daily basis.

  3. Federal Regulations
    Javascript must be enabled, and a pop-up blocker should be disabled, for the links below to work properly. (That is a consequence of the way the GPO’s “Federal Digital System” web site is designed, not a requirement of this web site.)

  4. Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) 
  5. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) …This is a currently updated version of the C.F.R., which can be browsed but not searched. It is an unofficial editorial compilation of C.F.R. material and Federal Register amendments. [More]
  6. Federal Register (Fed. Reg.) 

  7. CAUTION—Regulations in the C.F.R. can be obsolete by as much as 11 months because of the quarterly rotational schedule for updating. Always search the List of Sections Affected (LSA) for a C.F.R. section number, to discover whether the section has been affected by regulatory action within a selected date range.

    NOTE—Some parts of C.F.R. titles include appendices. To view an appendix, use the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR), linked above. Navigate to the Table of Contents  link (not the “Part” link) for the C.F.R. part where the appendix is expected to be found, click on that link, and look for the appended material to be listed and linked after the final section of the pertinent part (or, sometimes, a subpart).

  8. Internal Revenue Service — Treasury Regulations and Guidance
  9. Administrative Orders ♦ Decisions ♦ Opinions

    For additional decisions, orders, and decisions, see a collection of links to Federal Administrative Decisions and Other Actions at the University of Virginia School of Law.
  10. Administrative Procedural Rules ♦ Rules of Practice ♦ Judicial Rules
  11. Additional Resources
    ¶ “The Federal Register Tutorial … [Office of the Federal Register / National Archives and Records Administration] — Subtitled “The Federal Register: What It Is and How to Use It,” this tutorial covers (1) historical background and legal basis of the Federal Register / Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) publication system, (2) the regulatory process and the role of the public, (3) organization of the daily Federal Register and important elements of typical documents, (4) proposed rules, rules, notices, and presidential documents, (5) organization of the C.F.R. and the relationships among public laws, the Federal Register, and the C.F.R., and (6) research tools to find information in print and online publications.
    ¶ “A Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations … [Law Librarian’s Society of Washington, D.C.]
    Regulations.gov … “On this U.S. Government Web site you can find, view, and comment on regulations and other actions for all Federal agencies.”
    C.F.R. Titles … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — Interface for browsing the Code of Federal Regulations.
    Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules … This LARGE FILE (almost 1MB), or a smaller PDF version, contains tables listing rulemaking authority (except 5 U.S.C. § 301) for regulations codified in the Code of Federal Regulations, including statutory citations that are noted as being interpreted or applied by those regulations. Use this table to find C.F.R. links to U.S.C. citations, Statutes at Large citations (browser-search for “Statutes at Large:” — listed from 7 Stat. forward, but coverage is spotty), public law citations (browser-search for “Public Laws:” — listed by law number only, from 80-806 forward, but coverage is spotty), and executive orders and miscellaneous presidential documents (browser-search for “Presidential Documents:”). Note that the C.F.R. links for a U.S.C. citation can be specifically extracted through Cornell Law School’s LII web site, by first viewing the code section there (see the form above for U.S.C. citations).
    Search C.F.R. Section Headings … [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — Hits are displayed in the context of section headings grouped under the “Part”-level heading (that is, all of the headings within one part are displayed).
    16 C.F.R. Parts 0-through-5 — Federal Trade Commission
    37 C.F.R. Ch. 2 — Copyright Office
    40 C.F.R. — Environmental Protection Agency
    Federal Acquisition Regulation Web Site … [General Services Admin.] — Provided by GSA’s FAR Secretariat on behalf of the Department of Defense, GSA, and NASA, this site contains much useful information in addition to the FAR (current and historical version) and recent Federal Acquisition Circulars.
    Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Issuances … From the agency that regulates national banks, these items include news releases, advisory letters, alerts, OCC bulletins, and items that were replaced in 1994 by OCC bulletins.
    Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Regulations … Full text of a three-volume reference work, “FDIC Law, Regulations and Related Acts,” containing the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, FDIC rules and regulations, FDIC advisory opinions, FDIC statements of policy, and FDIC general counsel’s opinions, along with finding aids and an index. It contains as well all Federal Reserve Board regulations (see another entry, below) along with related laws.
    Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Regulations and Policies
    Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Regulations … A table shows all regulations by letter designation and brief description, with links to texts at the GPO web site. See also the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation web site regarding bank holding companies regulations, consumer protection regulations, and other FRB regulations, presented as parts of a large reference work, “FDIC Law, Regulations and Related Acts.”
    Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rules and Regulations … [Univ. of Cincinnati Coll. of Law, Center for Corporate Law] — Hypertext versions of the following rules and regulations:
    Securities Act Rules Regulation S-B     Regulation S-T
    Securities Exchange Act Rules     Regulation S-K   Regulation S-X  
    Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Actions … Complaints, decisions and orders, final orders, etc., provided in HTML format, WordPerfect 5.1/DOS files, and PDF files. (This is the source of decisions and orders in the drop-down selection list above.)

 


“The essence of legal research in two words . . . see ALSO!

Copyright © 1995–2011 by LawSource, Inc. All rights reserved. Copying and use are restricted. See the copyright notice, statement of purpose, and DISCLAIMER on the Welcome to ALSO!  page. Citation formats generally follow The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (17th ed., Harvard L. Rev. Ass’n 2000). For a practical discussion based on that guide, see Martin, Introduction to Basic Legal Citation. See also a Wikipedia article.
Reviewed 15 July 2012
Send comments to Administrator@LawSource.com.

  LawSource.com Seal