Legal Resources
National and international legal and legislative governmental and private databases
Judicial Information
Curiae Project -- From Yale, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Supreme Court Historical Society. Contains selected Supreme Court records and briefs and other relevant materials available at no charge. Cases are included based on a ranking developed from citation data in historical and constitutional texts.
FindLaw--a comprehensive site containing the fulltext of Supreme Court Cases since 1893.
Justia.com -- Beta site presently covering 2006-2007 for retrieving general preliminary information about Federal District Court filings and dockets. Provides a link to subscription-based PACER for viewing the full text of court dockets and pleadings. Provides ability to search by parties' names, specific district courts, lawsuit type, and date filed or to browse by state, nature of suit, or cases.
LexisNexis Congressional -- Provides full-text access to historical (from 1789) and current U.S. Congressional publications including committee hearings, committee prints, Congressional Research Service reports, the American State Papers, the Serial Set (House and Senate documents and reports, Senate executive reports and treaty documents), Serial Set maps, Congressional news, and information about members of Congress and Congressional committees. Accessible to the Rice community or at the Library only.
State and Local Government on the NET: State Court Sites -- Links to judicial web sites for the 50 states.
United States Supreme Court -- Contains slip opinions 2001 to present, term orders, schedules, rules, bar admission forms and instructions, visitors' guides and other general Supreme Court information.
United States Supreme Court Decisions (1937-1975) -- through GPO Access
United States Supreme Court Decisions (1990-present)
Westlaw Campus Westlaw includes U.S. (including Supreme Court Decisions) and state case law after 1944. The system also includes access to: United States Code Annotated, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register (fulltext after 1980), state administrative codes and statutes. Secondary legal materials include the American Jurisprudence encyclopedia, American Law Reports (2d series+ and Federal) and several hundred journals and law reviews. Users may search by citation, parties to legal cases, and by subject.
World Court (International Court of Justice [ICJ]) Decisions -- Research guide with background and searching information and listings of pertinent periodicals, Web sites, bibliographies, dictionaries, and related reading material.
Legislative Information
Authenticated Public and Private Laws -- GPO Access beta release for the 110th Congress only.
The Legal Process: North Harris College Learning Resource Center's guide to the process by which a bill becomes a law. -- Includes both print sources and links to Internet sources.
LOUIS (Library of Unified Information Sources) -- Makes available in a fully searchable printable text format seven sets of federal documents dating back to 2001: Congressional Reports, Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Federal Register, Presidential Documents, GAO Reports, and Congressional Bills & Resolutions. Provides the ability to set up a standing query on an RSS feed. Provided by the Sunlight Foundation.
Slip Laws 104th-107th Congress
Statutes at Large -- Public and private laws and resolutions passed during each Congressional session. Only vol. 117 for the 108th Congress (2003-04) is presently available online. Paper copies for previous years are available in GOV-STACKS, AE 2.111.THOMAS -- Legislative Information on the Internet including bills and resolutions; the Congressional Record, schedules, and calendars; committee information; presidential nominations; treaties; and government resources.
United States Code -- 1994-2000 editions available online through GPO Access. Codificaton by subject matter (50 titles) of the general and permanent laws of the United States.
Miscellaneous
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -- Contains commission, briefing, SAC (Small Agency Council), and congressional reports, transcripts of meetings, and links for accessing information about filing a complaint, ending campus anti-semitism, and making public comments.
Rules/Regulations
Code of Federal Regulations -- 1996 through current year via GPO Access. Codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.
Federal Register -- 1995 through current year via GPO Access. Official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
State, City and County CodesMunicipal Codes Online (Seattle Public Library) -- City and county codes.
General InformationGuide to Law Online -- Law Library of Congress and Global Legal Information Network's compilation of free online legal resources by country.
Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties -- OSU's digitization of of out-of-print compilation of treaties, laws, and executive orders between the United States Government and Native American tribes.
Local Law Libraries
The Fred Parks Law Library (South Texas College of Law)
O'Quinn Law Library (University of Houston)
Thurgood Marshall School of Law Library (Texas Southern University)
