1. Federal Resources from the Three Branches
James M. Donovan, J.D., Ph.D. Reference/Public 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.

2. U.S. Constitution FindLaw
Annotations of U.S. Supreme Court cases through 1996
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Other sites that you visit may include historical documents or hypertext links between sections of the Constitution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 (who promised to preserve its format)

3. 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 (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

4. 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

6. LEGISLATIVE MATERIALS

7. 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 1994 and 5 archived supplements 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

8. 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.

9. 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.
Updating your search results

11. 1. Check Table of Amendments for Public Laws 2. Retrieve full text of
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.
1. Check Table of Amendments
for Public Laws
2. Retrieve full text of
Public Law

12. 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 section 1 g 2
We now need to visit Thomas to read the full text of Public Law

13. Here at the Thomas site, we can find Public Law 106-44
Here at the Thomas site, we can find Public Law 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

14. 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 – present
Committee Reports – present
GPO Access
Public laws – 1995 (104th Cong) - present
Bills (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.

15. 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
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

16. 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.

17. EXECUTIVE MATERIALS

18. 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 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999and 2000 Federal Register (Volumes 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 & 65). The volumes are searchable by keyword or date. The newest feature of this web page is the ability to browse the latest Federal Register without having to search for a relevant section first.

19. Note 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.
Note Revision Date

20. 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.

21. JUDICIAL MATERIALS

22. 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.

23. 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

24. U.S. Supreme Court FindLaw LexisOne Decisions since 1893
Free citator service to other Supreme Court and Circuit cases
Hyperlinks to other Supreme Court cases
LexisOne
Decisions since 1790
Fee-based access to Shepard’s
No hyperlinks to other cases
1. U.S. Supreme Court - Ironically, altho the Supreme Court has been distributing its court opinions in electronic format since It only set up its on web site in 2000.
Currently, only the 2000 and 2001 opinions are available, but since this site is also part of the GPO Access system, look for exciting future developments.
Focuses on recent documents and historical information on the Court
Cornell’s LII - contains all opinions of the court issued since May of 1990 & 600 most important historic decisions
FedWorld - FLITE - Federal Legal Information Through Electronics through 1975
Two most useful:
1. FindLaw - 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 term
LexisOne - Decisions since 1790
You will be asked to register on lexisONE for free. Registration is free.
Note footnotes are intermingled with text just as Lexis law reviews are printed. Can be difficult to read.
Be sure to check that you do not want to receive LexisOne alerts. You’ll be hounded.
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 syllabi of court decisions on the day they are issued. If you wish to obtain the full opinion of a case, just back, and they’ll send you the full opinion – FREE.

25. Federal Courts of Appeals
FindLaw
Search all of the U.S. Federal Courts of Appeals decisions available via the web
In your materials, lists of individual circuits web pages.
Point out FindLaw’s search engine for searching all Circuit Court opinions that FindLaw has available. I got a message “service too busy”

26. Federal Courts of Appeals
For both FINDLAW and LII – CAVEAT:
Not maintained by any single institution.
Great variation in the collections many beginning with 1995.
File formats, titling practices, layout, and typography all vary widely and there may be significant gaps.
Updated weekly.
Very recent cases may not appear in your search results.
Cornell’s web site worked better for me.
Cornell’s LII
Search all U.S. Federal Courts of Appeals decisions available via the web

27. Federal District Courts
Use a meta-index such as FindLaw.
You must go to each individual District Court to do research.
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.
Can obtain full text opinions from PACER dial up system. Very painful.
Use a meta-index such as FindLaw or USCourts

28. 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
State materials: Most constitutions, codes & administrative codes. A few states might be missing one of these items.
Most states provide cases law from approximately 1996 to present. A few states only provide recent cases (past few months) and a few states offer no cases.
Final advice – bookmark your favorite sites – Cornell, FindLaw, Thomas, GPO Access

29. The End