Looting the Federal Treasure-House: Gems of Government Information James M. Donovan, J.D., Ph.D. Reference/Access Services Librarian University of Georgia Law Library What types of legal information are available for free on the Internet? Primary legal documents as well as law-related commentary abound on the Internet Researchers will find federal codes, pending legislation, administrative rules & regulations, as well as current appellate-level case law Will discuss best sites for finding primary federal materials Why? Researchers who depend primarily on popular search engines to locate legal documents likely will miss mounds of valuable information. Because search engines do not, arguably cannot, collect and index all data available on the Web. One study published in Nature during July 1999, found that the Web houses an estimated 800 million pages. Yet search engines index a mere 16%, at best. On the other hand, a general search can yield hundreds of results, too many to review, that in any event provide no clue as to the usefulness and authority of the source. It is possible to limit searches to .gov domain, but if you know where to go, direct is best! YOUR TIME IS VALUABLE!!

U.S. Constitution FindLaw Annotations of U.S. Supreme Court cases through June 2000 Easy to navigate Hyperlinks between Constitution sections Hyperlinks to U.S. Supreme Court cases Can find the text of the U.S. Constitution at many web sites. Some sites have better formatting and are much easier to read than others Other sites that you visit may include historical documents or hypertext links between sections of the Constitution ONLY 2 sites, GPO ACCESS and FINDLAW include U.S. Supreme Court case law. FINDLAW - The FINDLAW version of the Constitution is more easily navigable than the GPO Access site. FINDLAW – started as a list of Internet legal resources used for a workshop for Northern California Law Librarians. Purchased by West Group in 2001. (who promised to preserve its format)

Findlaw Hyperlinks to U.S. Supreme Court Cases Sample page from FINDLAW’s U.S. Constitution Annotations for the 27th Amendment Includes an analysis and interpretation of the Constitution prepared by the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service. Includes annotations of U.S. Supreme Court cases decided through June 2000. (includes older cases, example 1899) FINDLAW has added links between the footnotes and sections of the Constitution, as well as links to Supreme Court cases through 2000 cited in the annotations. Findlaw Hyperlinks between footnotes Hyperlinks to U.S. Supreme Court Cases

Founders’ Constitution Anthology of primary sources for the Constitutional text Arranged by Constitutional section Published as a joint venture of the University of Chicago Press and the Liberty Fund

LEGISLATIVE MATERIALS

LATE BREAKING NEWS ALERT!!! GPO TO CEASE PRINT DEPOSITORY PROGRAM? ALL ELECTRONIC FUTURE LOOMS!! Only “Essential Titles” to be distributed, although at this time it is not clear what those will be

U.S. Code Office of the Law Revision Counsel - source for the printed official version of the US Code. This is the most authoritative source. GPO Access - contains archived versions of Code from 1994 with annual supplements and 2000 Cornell - easily searched, hyperlinks among code sections No web sites offer a full text up-to-the minute version of the U.S. Code. No web sites offer annotations. The best site for searching and viewing the U.S. Code is Cornell. Cornell – first law site on the Internet in 1992. Cornell’s site contains the most recent version of the Code made available by the U.S. House of Representatives. Well-formatted. Easily searched. Hyperlinks among code sections The House of Rep Office of the Law Revision Counsel is the official source for the printed version of the U.S. Code. The text of the U.S. Code is made available by the Office of Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Reps GPO Access - The GPO Access site contains 2000 Ed., and its first supplement

Here’s an example of the various ways you can search the U. S Here’s an example of the various ways you can search the U.S. Code at the Cornell site. Listing of all titles/ search individual title. Note this is the most efficient way to search. No need to search full code (which will take a few minutes), if you know what title your section should be included in. Table of Popular names - with links to full text if available. Example – try typing Interstate Commerce Act into Google and you’ll get lots of info about the Act, but not necessarily the text of the act. If you have a citation, plug it in Or search full text. Clicking on find will retrieve documents matching your terms.

Updating your search results Let’s talk about updating your search results. Remember I said none of the U.S. Code sites are 100% up to date. At Cornell always visit the updates section.

1. Check Table of Amendments for Public Laws 2. Retrieve full text of Public Law 1. Check Table of Amendments for Public Laws A common response from the server: You can follow the instructions on this page and manually update your code section. First visit the House of Representatives Internet Library to obtain the Table of Amendments for Public Laws. 2. Second, visit Thomas to read the full text of any public laws that have amended the code section that you’re interested in.

When you visit the House Internet Library (uscode. house When you visit the House Internet Library (uscode.house.gov) you will look for your title and code section in the table of amendments. In this instance, we see that our code section has been amended by Public Law 106-44 section 1 g 2 We now need to visit Thomas to read the full text of Public Law 106-44.

Here at the Thomas site, we can find Public Law 106-44 Here at the Thomas site, we can find Public Law 106-44. You can browse public laws by their numbers. We can check section 1 g 2 and find the language that amends our code section. Section 106 is amended by striking 120 and replacing with 121

Tracking Current Legislation & Legislative History Thomas Public laws - summaries 1973 (93rd Cong) - present full-text 1989 (101st Cong) - present Bills - summaries & status 1973 –, full text 1989 – Congressional Record – 1989 - present Committee Reports – 1995 - present GPO Access Public laws – 1995 (104th Cong) - present Bills - 1993 (103d Cong) - present Congressional Record – 1994 (vol. 140) - present Committee Reports – 1995 (104th Cong) - present Two highly recommended sites for tracking current legislation and legislative history. Many more listed in written materials. If you are interested in legislative information, these two should be your first Internet stop. Legislative history research refers to efforts to track the progress of a bill through the legislative process and to examine documents created thru that process. Generally, 2 purposes: Determine legislative intent 2. Determine the status of a bill Thomas -- Because this site was designed by librarians at the Library of Congress, it is easily navigable. GPO Access – Government Printing Office Both have full text of public laws, bills, Congressional Record and Committee Reports. Thomas coverage is broader, yet GPO Access has other materials as well. Note GPO Access also has US Code, US Constitution, Federal Register, CFR, Weekly Compilation of Presidential documents, Congressional Directory.

Named for Thomas Jefferson, this excellent web site from the Library of Congress. Note title: Legislative Information on the Internet - the best source for federal legislative information available on the Internet Public laws – a little misleading - The full text of public laws can be accessed by Public Law number from the 101st Congress (1989) to present. Summaries of Public Laws are provided for the 93rd Congress (1973) to the 100th Congress(1988). How Congress Makes Laws LINKS: Congressional Directory contact info, committee membership This web site contains Congressional Record (from the 101st Congress, 1989 to present Roll call votes Committee reports and links to committees

Note tabs at top of page – Legislative, Executive, & Judicial GPO = Government Printing Office GPO Access provides history of bills including status. Full text of congressional bills, documents, hearings, reports, Congressional Record, public laws and committee prints.

GovTrack THOMAS is toying with the idea of establishing email alerts about new legislation. Until that happens, you might be interested in GovTrack. This new site allows you, after free registration, to specify subjects using terms assigned by the Congressional Research Service. Choosing from this list, you can then have updates emailed to you either daily or weekly.

EXECUTIVE MATERIALS

Federal Regulations Code of Federal Regulations GPO Access -includes superseded volumes Cornell’s LII Federal Register GPO Access CFR is available at both Cornell and GPO Access Note that the GPO Access site includes superseded volumes of the CFR while the Cornell site mentioned below includes the most recent version of the CFR. Cornell’s LII - This web site provides an improved front-end to the most recent version of the CFR placed on the Internet by the GPO Access. As with the U.S. Code at Cornell that we looked at in detail earlier, you can search the CFR from this site by citation, a detailed table of contents, an index of all section headings or the Government Printing Office search engine. FEDERAL REGISTER - GPO Access – The GPO’s database includes the 1994-2005 Federal Register (Volumes 59-70). The volumes are searchable by keyword or date. You can sign up for an emailed daily TOC. The homepage also has an direct link to the latest issue.

Note the Revision Date Note revision date Update results using Federal Register. Same process as print. If you’ve forgotten how to use tables and update, there is an explanatory page on the GPO Federal Register pages. PDF versions are also available from the Cornell LII site. Note the Revision Date

e-CFR Compare the “Revised of” date of the official CFR, with that of the electronic but still experimental CFR that is updated daily. This version is accessed via GPO Access, and can be useful as a guide, but it cannot be cited as legal authority.

Federal Government Agencies If you’re doing regulatory/administrative research, in addition to the CFR & Federal Register, you might want to visit a particular federal administrative agency web site. The best place for locating government agencies info is First Gov. FirstGov is the award-winning official U.S. gateway to all government information. FirstGov is an interagency initiative administered by the U.S. General Services Administration. Customer feedback is the driving force for how information is organized. On FirstGov.gov, you can search more than 51 million web pages from federal and stategovernments, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

Other sites can be used to identify administrative resources, such as the FEDERAL WEB LOCATOR, and FEDWORLD.

Forms.gov If what you need is a form, FORMS.GOV might be your first option. It makes immediately available about 2000 forms that are searchable by form number, agency, and even by form name.

JUDICIAL MATERIALS

Federal Case Law Meta-Indexes Links to U.S. Supreme Court, Circuit Courts and District Courts Include specialized courts such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, U.S. Court of International Trade One possibility for locating Federal Case law is to use a meta-index. Meta-index is a term meaning comprehensive index. Meta-indexes will provide links to U.S. Supreme Ct. Circuit Courts and District Courts as well as specialized courts such as Bankruptcy or International Trade.

Federal Case Law Meta-Indexes Let me show you my three favorite meta-indexes for federal case law. Federal Judiciary - maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Intended to be a clearinghouse from and about the judicial branch of the U.S. government. Links to ones mentioned previously plus Federal Judicial Center, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, U.S. Sentencing Commission, and other sites of interest. 3. Emory - includes clickable map 4. Villanova’s Federal Court Locator

U.S. Supreme Court FindLaw Supreme Court Decisions since 1991 (PDF) Decisions since 1893 (html) Free citator service to other Supreme Court and Circuit cases Hyperlinks to other Supreme Court cases Supreme Court Decisions since 1991 (PDF) FedWorld Decisions between 1937-75 only (html) U.S. Supreme Court The court’s official site offers PDF of the bound volumes from 502 (1991), and slips to the present. For earlier volumes, FedWorld.gov offers vols. 300-422 (1937 through 1975). The format is HTML, and all words are distractingly in caps. Cornell’s LII - contains all opinions of the court issued since May of 1990 & 600 most important historic decisions. Most comprehensive: FindLaw’s database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1893 (US Reports 150‑) is browsable by year, cite, case title & full text. FindLaw includes U.S. Reports page breaks. Free citator service also hyperlinks to other Supreme Court cases Also has court rules, docket, calendar, ** briefs from the present and back to the Oct. 1999 term If all of these website have your head swimming…you can have court info delivered directly to you. Cornell’s LII site offers to send you automatically the email syllabi of court decisions on the day they are issued. If you wish to obtain the full opinion of a case, just email back, and they’ll send you the full opinion – FREE. New in 2004, you can subscribe to a PREVIEW alert service, which updates you by email on cases that are PENDING before the court, but have not yet been decided.

Federal Courts of Appeals Omnibus Searching Capability for Federal Courts FindLaw formerly had this capacity, but it no longer exists LexisOne does allow limited omnibus searching, but only for the last five years, and requires free registration Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, however, still allows this function: In your materials, lists of individual circuits web pages.

Federal Courts of Appeals Cornell’s LII Search all U.S. Federal Courts of Appeals simultaneously via the web

Federal District Courts Use a meta-index such as FindLaw. You must go to each individual District Court to do research. Free access is uneven: By one analysis, about 35 district courts out of 94 allow access to at least some opinions without going through PACER Many District Courts have home pages with court calendars, dockets, some court rules and forms, but very few of them offer the full text of opinions. Use a meta-index such as FindLaw or USCourts

Conclusion: What federal materials are available via the web? U.S. Constitution with Supreme Ct. annotations U.S. Code - unannotated U.S. Supreme Court cases U.S. Court of Appeals cases - last 5-7 years U.S. District Court cases - very few Code of Federal Regulations & Federal Register Agency materials galore Final advice – bookmark your favorite sites – Cornell, FindLaw, Thomas, GPO Access

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