Research Guides: Law & Legislative Research : US Law

Statutory Law

"US Capitol" by keithreifsnyder is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Statutory laws are those passed by the federal or state Congress (or other legislative body) and signed by the President or Governor. These resources pertain to all steps of the legislative process, allowing one to track a bill during all steps of its process through the legislature in question.

United States Statutes at Large
Call Number: US Gov Docs, AE 2.111:
United States Code
Call Number: Reference KF62 2012 .A2

Congress.gov
Currently contains legislation from the 103rd Congress (1993) to the present, member profiles from the 93rd Congress (1973) to the present, and some member profiles from the 80th through the 92nd Congresses (1947 to 1972).
GovInfo.gov
Provides access to sources of information from all three branches of the Federal Government, as well as the capability to search based on date, collection, and further criteria.
Public and Private Laws ("Slip Laws")
Public and private laws are also known as slip laws. A slip law is an official publication of the law and is competent evidence admissible in all state and Federal courts and tribunals of the United States. Public laws affect society as a whole, while private laws affect an individual, family, or small group.
Statutes at Large (govinfo.gov)
Permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress.
United States Code (govinfo.gov)
Codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. Digitally authenticated documents.
United States Code (House Ofc of the Law Revision Council)
Codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. This is easier to browse than the version at govinfo.gov, but it is not an "official" source of information. Use the govinfo.gov link for digitally authenticated documents.
United States Code (Library of Congress/HeinOnline, 1925-1988)
HeinOnline has agreed to make selected documents available through the Library of Congress web site. This collection provides access to historic editions of the US Code that are not currently available through govinfo.gov.
How Our Laws are Made
Complete text of The Honorable Charles W. Johnson's booklet of the same title, about the federal legislative system

Administrative Law

"White House" by jschauma is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The two major categories of administrative law are:

Laws made by Congress giving power to federal agencies (FCC, FDA, EPA, etc.) and/or establishing rules and procedures these agencies must follow.
The regulations passed by federal agencies. An example of a regulation is a limit on how many newspapers can be owned by a particular company (this would be passed by the FCC). Often, regulations must be made to execute statutory law.

Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Call Number: Reference KF70 .A3

Executive Orders (GovInfo.gov)
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to Federal regulation.
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR, HeinOnline & Library of Congress, 1938-1995)
HeinOnline has partnered with Library of Congress to make historic issues of the Code of Federal Regulations available on the LOC website.
FederalRegister.gov
Interactive web sites allows citizens to follow and comment on current items in the Federal Register.
Federal Register (GovInfo.gov)
The official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
Federal Register (National Archives)
Contains proposed regulations, final regulations, executive orders, presidential proclamations, and meeting notices. All are arranged chronologically.
Federal Register Tutorial
Learn what the Federal Register is, and how to use it.

Case Law

Case law is comprised of decisions made by federal or state judges, or by the Supreme Court.

Finding Court Decisions

The Lexis-Nexis Academic database, then the "Legal" tab leads to searches for state, Federal, and Supreme Court decisions; links to Shepard's Citations for further information. (Researchers who are not FSU students, faculty, or staff will need to access this database from a library computer.)

Federal Case Law

United States Supreme Court
United States Courts of Appeals
United States District Courts

United States Reports
Call Number: US Gov Docs GP 3.22/2:025/

US Supreme Court Opinions
The "Opinions" link provides full text of opinions back to 1991; from this link, the "Case Citation Finder" yields citations of opinions back to 1790.
United States Courts Opinions
opinions from selected United States appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts. The content of this collection dates back to April 2004, though searchable electronic holdings for some courts may be incomplete for this earlier time period.
US Courts - General Information
Official site, giving locations for each court and other information

Publication of Federal Laws

Publication of Federal Laws (Prezi)