Legal Studies Research Guide
Federal Government Documents

The Federal government documents used most frequently by legal studies students are listed below.

Federal Law

 Judicial | Legislative | Administrative

Judicial

U.S. Supreme Court

(Electronic Resources)

LexisNexis Academic
Select Legal Research (from the Academic Search Form), Federal Case Law and default is Supreme Court Cases.

U.S. Supreme Court Opinions
Findlaw collection of Supreme Court decisions since 1893. Browsable by year and U.S. Report volune number and searchable by citation, case name, and keywords.

Westlaw Campus Research
Click on the Law tab at the top of the page. Under Select One or More Areas to Search and Cases, click on the radio buttons next to Supreme Court Cases.

(Print Resources)

United States Reports
KF 101 A2
Official edition of U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

United States Supreme Court Reports
KF 101 L3
Commercially published by Lexis Law Publishing; includes summaries of attorneys' briefs and articles/essays discussing the impact and meaning of the cases.

West's Supreme Court Reporter
KF 101 S92
Commercial publication of U.S. Supreme Court decisions; includes West key numbers.

U.S. Courts of Appeal

(Electronic Resources)

Federal Courts Finder
Excellent site, hosted by Emory School of Law, including the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.

LexisNexis Academic
Select Legal Research (under Academic Search Forms), Federal Case Law and change drop down menu to Court of Appeals.

(Print Resources)

West's Federal Reporter, Federal Reporter 2d and Federal Reporter 3d
KF105 F42
Print Federal Courts of Appeals cases.

U.S. District Courts

(Electronic Resources)

Federal Resource: Judicial Branch: District Courts
Findlaw's collection of U.S. District Court cases by state.

LexisNexis Academic
Select Legal Research (under Academic Search Forms), Federal Case Law and change drop down menu to District Courts.

(Print Resources)

West's Federal Supplement and Federal Supplement 2d
KF 120 F4
Contains selected Federal District Court cases .

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Federal Statutes

(Electronic Resources)

LexisNexis Academic
Select Legal Research (under Academic Search Forms), Federal Code and the default setting is U.S. Code.

U.S.Code
Electronic access to the official published version of the United States Code.

Westlaw Campus Research
Click on the Law tab at the top of the page. Under Select One or More Areas to Search and Statutes and Regulations, click on the radio buttons next to United States Code Annotated.

(Print Resources)

United States Code Annotated
KF 62 1927  W45
All federal statutes currently in effect arranged by subject. Also includes citations to cases interpreting the statutes, as well as references to the relevant sections of the Code of Federal Regulations.

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Federal Administrative Regulations

(Electronic Resources)

Code of Federal Regulations
Includes the administrative regulations issued by the administative agencies cumulated and arranged by subject.

Federal Register
Includes administrative rules and regulations issued by administrative agencies.

LexisNexis Academic
For administrative regulations issued by administative agencies, select Legal Research, Federal Regulations and select either Federal Register or change the drop down menu to Code of Federal Regulations.

Westlaw Campus Research
Click on the Law tab at the top of the page. Under Select One or More Areas to Search and Statutes and Regulations, click on the radio buttons next to Code of Federal Regulations or Federal Register.

Code of Federal regulations
KF 70 A3 1949

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