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 November 2009  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 2003 forward. The complete contents of bound volumes of United States Reports starting with volume 502 (1991) can be downloaded in PDF files (one file per volume) from the court's web site.

    Retrieve any U.S. Supreme Court case (back to 1790) by citation (e.g., “176 U.S. 242” or “20 S. Ct. 370” or “44 L. Ed. 452”) from a LEXIS database. There is also a text-search function. (Registration is required but is free.)
    U.S. Supreme Court cases before 1790, as well as cases from 1790 to the present, are available in a free, full-text-searchable database at AltLaw.org, which is a joint project of the Program on Law and Technology at Columbia Law School and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School.
    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. The 1,000 Cases Most Cited by the Court Itself... [Infosynthesis, Inc. (Minn.)] — This database contains, in full text, the 1,000 U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have been most-cited by the Court itself from 1922 through June 30, 1999. See also, from the same source and same database, the “Top 100 U.S. Supreme Court Opinions” presented with a different interface.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.”
  8. ¶  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) filed by the solicitor general 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. Regular Decisions

    These links point to case reports on the courts' web sites, where the databases generally cover only relatively recent cases. Unofficial sources of case reports going back as far as 1950 (for most of these courts) are linked under “Additional Resources” below.
  2. Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Decisions
  3. Appellate cases can be retrieved by citation (e.g., “73 F.3d 1”) from a LEXIS database (free searching goes back five years only). There is also a text-search function. (Registration is required but is free.)

    Additional Resources
    ¶  Regular Decisions — AltLaw.org A joint project of the Program on Law and Technology at Columbia Law School and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School, AltLaw.org provides a free, full-text-searchable database of case reports for all of the U.S. courts of appeals, going back as far as 1950.
    ¶  Courts of appeals decisions at FindLaw (West Group)
    ¶  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.
    ¶  Directory of Electronic Public Access Services ... [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, Southern District of New York] — 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 and are listed on a drop-down list on the main screen. Some of the rulings are available as Abode Acrobat files.
    ¶  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).
    ¶  Directory of Electronic Public Access Services ... [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.

    Additional Resources
    ¶  Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces — Decisions 1971–1991 ... [AltLaw.org] — A very small number of case reports.


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) along with images of the original four pages and the letter of transmittal. 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, and the Declaration of Independence.
  3. Constitution ... [Institut für öffentliches Recht, Universität Bern (Switzerland)] — This is part of the International Constitutional Law Project. Links to the constitutions of many other countries also are available on this web site.
  4. ¶  Annotated Constitution ... Annotations were written by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress and include citations to relevant Supreme Court decisions through June 2004. (See also links to other commentary on the Constitution, including The Federalist.)
  5. Annotated Constitution ... [Gov't Printing Office (D.C.)] — This is the 2002 edition, in numerous PDF files, accompanied by supplements based on post-2002 cases. (Some amendments have no annotations, and some of the files are very large.)
  6. Annotated Constitution ... [Cornell Law Sch. / Legal Information Inst.] — Well-formatted HTML presentation of the 1992 edition (as supplemented) with hyperlinks to sources cited in annotations.
  7. Annotated Constitution ... [FindLaw (West Group)] — Well-formatted HTML presentation of the 1992 edition (as supplemented) with hyperlinks to sources cited in annotations.
  8. ¶  Amendments
  9. Amendments With Notes on Ratification  [U.S. Senate] — 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.
  10. Proposed Amendments Not Ratified ... [U.S. Senate] — 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.”
  11. ¶  Supreme Court Constitutional Decisions ... [Gov't Printing Office (D.C.)] — Citations to decisions of the Supreme Court based on constitutional grounds, covering decisions through June 2002, classified in the following categories:
  12. Unconstitutional Acts of Congress ... Showing issue(s) decided and constitutional provision(s) in question, as well as justices' separate opinions.
  13. 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.
  14. Overruled Decisions
  15. ¶  Translated Versions
  16. French: Constitution des Etats-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. The Internet Association for the Advancement of Human Rights provides another version.
  17. 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).
  18. ¶  Constitution in Downloadable File
  19. USCONSTITUTION128.PDF (59KB) ... [U.S. Coast Guard Chief Counsel] — a PDF file.


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 starting with the 101st Congress (1989–1990) and bill summaries and status starting with the 93rd Congress (1973–1974).

  2. Public Laws

    Texts of laws starting with the 101st Congress (1989–1990); summaries only (no texts) back through 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 brief explanation of public laws (and private laws) by NARA. 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)).

    ¶  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.
    ¶  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, send e-mail to listserv@www.gsa.gov with the message “subscribe publaws-L” (no quotation marks) followed by the subscriber's name.
    ¶  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).
    ¶  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).
    ¶  Search bills ... [Gov't Printing Office (D.C.)] — Interface for keyword searching of bill texts, back through the 103rd Congress (1993-1994).

    Top
  4. United States Code

    The Cornell/LII version presents the G.P.O. database with a user-friendly interface (and different search function), but the Cornell/LII version does not provide reliable access to the appendices. 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 G.P.O. database. Some titles include an appendix containing additional statutory provisions; for an appendix, use the G.P.O. database linked in the preceding drop-down list.

    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.

    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
  5. 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) a guide to the act by a department of the Army Judge Advocate General's School; (2) an advisory letter from the Comptroller of the Currency to national banks; (3) a Q-and-A brochure for service members by the North Carolina State Bar.
  6. ¶  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.

    ¶  Supreme Court Rules — Miscellaneous Revisions: 2005 Revisions [eff. 5/05] • 2003 Revisions [eff. 5/03] • 1999 Revisions [eff. 5/99] • 1997 Revisions [eff. 5/97] ... [Cornell Law Sch. (N.Y.), Legal Information Inst.] — These documents include the clerk's comments.
    ¶  Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure ... [Univ. of Kansas, Law Library] — This is an HTML version of the criminal rules, easier to navigate than versions available at the links above.
    ¶  Amendments to Court Rules ... [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. All proposed amendments to the rules are posted for your review . . . .”
    ¶  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 in a PDF file (26KB).

  7. Rules for Military Courts
  8. Additional Resources

  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.
    3. Code of Conduct for United States Judges


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. Treaties With Canada, 1783–1997 ... [Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal] — “This Web site provide[s] free access to the text of all bilateral treaties established between the United States of America and Canada from 1783 to 1997.” There is a French version of the site.

  3. 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.
  4. Family Law
  5. International Judicial Assistance
  6. Trade and Business Transactions Law
  7. Wills, Trusts, and Estates
  8. “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. See also an interface for searching treaty-related legislative documents starting with the 104th 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.

    Additional Resources
    ¶  Disposition of Executive Orders of the President (E.O.)
    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).
    ¶  Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents ... [National Archives and Records Administration] — The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register. It contains statements, messages, and other Presidential materials released by the White House during the preceding week. Documents from 1993 to the present can be found by performing key-word searches. Beginning with the 2001 database, it is possible to select documents by browsing the weekly table of contents.

  2. Federal Regulations
    See also a daily-updated version of the C.F.R.

    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 consult the List of Sections Affected (LSA). Check a particular section or part for amendment history in the Federal Register. See also daily tables of contents and annual cumulative indexes for the Federal Register (back through 1998).

    Note—Some titles in the C.F.R. have appendices. To view an appendix, navigate to the last section of the title, then look for the appended material to begin after the text of that section.

     TitlePartSectionSubpart 
     C.F.R. §   .   
    (Required) (Required) (Section OR Subpart)
    This form can retrieve available code sections for 1996 in Titles 20, 21, 40, and 42–50 only.

    VolumePage
       Fed. Reg.   
    Pages are retrieved one at a time in PDF files.
    See a table of Federal Register page ranges and issue dates at the end of each LSA.

  3. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) ... [Gov't Printing Office (D.C.)] — This version of the C.F.R. can be browsed but not searched. It purports to be the most up-to-date version of the code that is available on the internet. The web site states: “The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) is a prototype of a currently updated version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The e-CFR prototype is a demonstration project. It is not an official legal edition of the CFR. The e-CFR prototype is authorized and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the Government Printing Office (GPO). The OFR updates the material in the e-CFR on a frequent basis.”

  4. Internal Revenue Service — Treasury Regulations and Guidance
  5. 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.
  6. Administrative Procedural Rules ♦ Rules of Practice ♦ Judicial Rules
  7. 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 VERY LARGE FILE (almost 1MB) 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
    ¶  48 C.F.R. Ch. 1 — General Services Administration: Federal Acquisition Regulation
    ¶  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 © 1995–2010 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 November 2009
Send comments to Administrator@LawSource.com.

  LawSource.com Seal