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Bills

A Bill Becomes a Law in the US - Process outline from introduction of a bill in Congress through its interpretation in the federal court system with print sources and Internet links.

 

Bill Summary and Status (Thomas) - Searchable and browseable databases of legislative records about federal bills from the 93rd Congress (1973) forward. 

Enactment of a Law - Senate procedures described by the Parliamentarian of the Senate.

Congressional Bills (GPO Access) - Search form for all published versions of bills from the 103rd Congress (1991) forward.

History of Bills (GPO Access) - Section of the Congressional Record Index that provides information about all bills and resolves introduced.

How Our Laws Are Made -  House procedures revised and updated by the Parliamentarian of the House.

Thomas - Search form for keywords or bill numbers and links for browsing bills from the 101st Congress (1987) forward.

Session laws

Public and Private Laws (GPO Access) - Links to catalogs of laws and a search form for laws from the 104th Congress (1995) forward.

Public Laws (Thomas) - Links to public laws by law number from the 93rd Congress (1973) forward.

Q&A on US Laws (Law Librarians' Society of D.C.) - Answers to questions on finding laws and their codification.

 

US Code

U.S. Code (U.S. House) - Form for searching the current version. Also includes links for searching prior versions and supplements of the Code back to 1988.

U.S. Code (Cornell) - Search form for specific citations and a list of titles for table of contents browsing with links to a search engine and a table of popular names.

Legislative history

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875 - Read a description of the collection.

 

Committee Reports (Thomas) - Search form for the text of committee reports from the 104th Congress (1995-1996) forward with a link for browsing a list of committee reports.

Congressional Record (Thomas) - Search form for the text of the Congressional Record from the 101st Congress (1989-1990) forward with links to search the index and browse by date.

Federal Legislative History Research - Guide to compiling the documents and searching for legislative intent written by law librarians.

Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format-  Online legislative histories compiled by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., Inc.  as part of their Legislative Source Book. Use any ID for login. Histories are listed either by populkar name or by public law number.

Q&A in Legislative Research (Law Librarians' Society of D.C.) - Answers to questions relating to bills and resolutions, legislative histories, hearings, and the Congressional Record.

Cases

District Court, District of Maine - Links to a listing by judge and a keyword search form.

Federal Courts Finder (Emory) - Links to federal court cases from US map showing circuits.

 

FindLaw: Supreme Court Opinions, 1893 to date - Forms for searching full text, citation, or party and links for browsing by volume or year.

First Circuit Opinions (Emory) - Links to a list of monthly cases, parties, and a keyword search form. Only cases from November 1995 through July 2001 are included. For later cases see the District of Maine site.

FLITE: Supreme Court Decisions, 1937-1975 -  Forms for full text and party search for cases published in volumes 300 through 422 of US Reports.

 

OYEZ Project -  A U.S. Supreme Court multimedia database of opinions and abstracts from Northwestern University. You can search by title, citation, date, or subject.

Supreme Court Opinions (Cornell) - links to lists of cases by topic, author, and party; and a keyword search form.

 

Supreme Court Times - Covers all U.S. Supreme Court cases on the docket and includes text, blog commentary, links to lower court opinions, oral argument transcript, and briefs.

Supreme Court's Site - Links to lists of cases by term.

WashLaw - Search forms for federal cases that include direct links to cases.

Court rules

Federal Court Rules (LLRX) - Rules for all federal courts.

 

First Circuit Court of Appeals - Local rules.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court - District of Maine - Links to local rules.

 

U.S. District Court for the District of Maine - Local rules.

Regulations

Code of Federal Regulations (GPO Access) - Links for searching or browsing the entire CFR or selected CFR titles for current or historical text.

Code of Federal Regulations (Cornell) - Links to individual CFR titles and a search form for CFR headings.

Federal Register (GPO Access) - Search form for issues from 1995 forward and links for browsing issues from 1998 forward.

Lists of CFR Sections Affected - Links for browsing or searching for changes to CFR parts since the last annual revision.

Q&A on Regulatory Research - Answers to questions on finding implementing regulations and locating the summary and rationale for a particular regulation.

Constitution

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy - Links to information relating to the history and interpretation of the Constitution and to other core documents, including the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Gettysburg Address.

U.S. Constitution (U.S. House) - Text of the Constitution with notes.

U.S. Constitution (Cornell) - Links to the text of each article of the Constitution.