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Federal Law Links

United States Code

  • Official U.S. Code (Government Printing Office) - 2000 edition and annual supplements offers a variety of search options. Prior versions of the U.S.C. (back to 1994) are also linked from this site.
  • U.S. Code (Cornell Legal Information Institute) - Search by citation, by popular name, keyword and Boolean operators and several other methods. Cross-references are in hypertext. Once you find a code section, browse backward and forward in numerical order.
  • U.S. Code (Law Revision Counsel) - Complete chapters can easily be downloaded here.

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Bills

  • THOMAS - Library of Congress provides full text bills from 1989-present.
    • Browse by topic, popular name, bill number or search by keyword and bill number. Separate files for each Congress. Hypertext links to committee reports and Congressional Record.
    • Bill Status for 110th Congress search by subject, bill number, sponsor, stage of legislation or committee.
  • GPO Access provides a bill search for 103rd - current Congress. To browse bills by title, see Catalog of Congressional Bills.

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Legislative Information

  • Federal Legislative History Research Guide (Duke University Law Library)
  • THOMAS (Library of Congress) - Start here for any information related to the United States Congress. Includes continuously updated floor actions, bills, votes, confirmations, reports and hearings.
  • Today In Congress (Washington Post) - Daily summary of the day's activities on Capitol Hill, including schedules for hearings and speakers.
  • CQ Weekly -The CQ Weekly is known as the pre-eminent resource for Congress-watchers who need nonpartisan information on Capitol Hill. The award-winning magazine's legislative news and analysis is consistently hailed for its accuracy and comprehensiveness.
  • Congressional Record
    • THOMAS (1989 - present): Search or browse individual congressional sessions.
    • GPO Access (1994 - present): Search Congressional Record for 103rd - 110th Congresses all at once (vol. 140-153)
    • HeinOnline (1873-1901 / 1988-present): PDF scans of the bound Congressional Record are available through HeinOnline's U.S. Congressional Documents Library. Prior versions of the Record (i.e., Congressional Globe, the Register of Debates, and the Annals of Congress) are also provided. Available to current Duke University students, faculty and staff.
  • Hearings
  • U.S. Congressional Serial Set Digital Edition - full-text of all the Reports, Documents and Journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Produced by READEX; available to current Duke University students, faculty and staff.

Federal Courts

Supreme Court

  • Supreme Court of the United States - the official web site includes Court calendars and schedules, background information about the Court and justices, Court Rules, bar admissions information, case handling guides and general public information. Full text of current term opinions are featured with links to previous bench opinions. Most documents are provided in PDF.
  • U.S. Supreme Court Research Guide (Duke University Law Library)
  • On the Docket - Current Supreme Court docket information from Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.
  • Supreme Court opinions
    • Findlaw (1893-present): Browse by volume or year; search by party, cite or keyword in full text.
    • Cornell LII (1990-present): New opinions posted within hours of release. Search by keyword; browse by party, date or docket number.
  • Program in Public Law (Duke Law School) - Case lists, certorari grants and commentary of Supreme Court cases. This site also includes scholarship generally on public law and institutions.

Lower Federal Courts

Court Information

  • U.S. Federal Courts - The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' clearinghouse of federal judicial information.
  • Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) - Service for access to court records and dockets. Nationwide party index with case information accessed at individual courts. Available to current Law School students, faculty and staff via password. Inquire at the Law Library Reference Desk for access.
  • Justia Federal District Court Filings and Dockets - Provides docket summaries and information for federal cases, 2004-present. Offers more flexible search capabilities than PACER, although access to actual court documents requires PACER username and password (see above).

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Federal Administrative Law

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General Federal Government

  • GPO Access - full text of the Congressional Record, Federal Register, legislative documents, GAO Reports and more. Search files individually or all at one time.
  • Federal Government Resources on the Web - Comprehensive list of links from the University of Michigan Documents Center.
  • FedWorld - Designed as an overall guide to government information and programs.
  • USA.Gov (formerly FirstGov) - Official government gateway for locating services and information for federal and state jurisdictions. Categories for citizens, business and governments as well as topical links and search feature.

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Last updated 11/2007... JB