Coleman Karesh Law Library

US Federal Government Legal Resources

Law Library Home Law Library Catalog				Location of Books & Collections Special Collections Research Guides & Tutorials				Electronic Resources - Limited Access Electronic Indexes

Constitution:

Links to the founding documents of the United States

• Constitution of the United States (Cornell Law School)
  • Analysis & Interpretation of the Constitution (GPO)
• Declaration of Independence
• Unratified Amendments
• Articles of Confederation

The Federal government is organized into three branches; Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

Most federal government websites will fit into one of the three categories.

Publicly oriented sites:

These are sites designed for the public, providing access to various services of the federal government.

• Executive Agencies
• Federal Administrative Agency Decisions and Other Actions
• Federal Consumer Information Center: Pueblo, Colorado
• Federal Register
• FedWorld Homepage: Federal Government Information Locator
• How Our Laws Are Made
• LLRX Guide to the US Federal Legal System
• Small Business Administration
• FirstGov: "Your First Click to the U.S. Government"
• Forms from the Feds

Executive:

• Executive Office of the President (White House)
• Executive Orders
• Homeland Security Digital Library (access limited from the law library only)

Regulatory:

• Executive Agencies
• Code of Federal Regulations
• The Federal Register
• Federal Administrative Agency Decisions and Other Actions (University of Virginia School of Law)
• A Research Guide to the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations: Law Librarians' Society of D.C.
• US Government Printing Office:
  • GPO Access: Locate government documents
  • Superintendent of Documents
  • Federal Depository Libraries
  • US Government Printing Office Online Bookstore
  • Superintendent of Documents' Online Resources
  • Congressional Record Index (1983-onward)
  • History of Bills (1983-onward)
• Forms from the Feds: links to various agencies' forms via the University of Memphis
• CyberCemetery: archives of defunct federal agencies

Legislative:

• US Congress: Current and recent federal legislation
• US Senate
• US House of Representatives
• US Code: at Cornell Law School
• US Code: Office of the Law Revision Council
• US Code: PDF version (unannotated)
• Historical Congressional documents (1774-1873)

Treaty Sites:

• American Society of International Law
• Early Recognized Treaties with American Indian Nations
• The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
• United Nations Treaty Collection
• US Department of State Private International Law Database
• US Senate: Treaties

Judicial:

• United States Supreme Court
  • The US Supreme Court
  • Findlaw: Important cases from 1893 to present. Browsable and searchable archive of US Supreme Court opinions from 1937 to the present.
  • Cornell Law School (US Supreme Court from 1990 to date, with selected decisions prior to 1990.)
  • Fedworld.gov: US Supreme Court opinions from 1937 to 1975
• United States Court of Appeals:
  • Finding Aids: Federal Court Finder: Emory Law School

• United States District Courts:
  • Federal District Court for the District of South Carolina
  • US Judiciary Sites (USC College of Library & Information Science)
  • District Court dockets
• Federal Court Rules:
  • Rules of the US Supreme Court (US Supreme Court)
  • Rules of the US Supreme Court (Cornell Law School)
  • Federal Rules of Evidence (Cornell Law School)
  • Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Cornell Law School)
• Other Court Sites of Interest
  • Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
  • Federal Judicial Center
  • Federal Judicial Center Publications
  • Biographies of Federal Judges
  • United States Sentencing Commission