Federal Law   Tags: cases, congress, court rules, decisions, federal courts, federal law, legislative history, opinions, regulations, statutes, united states code  

Links to: How Our Laws are Made (House), Enactment of a Law (Senate), and a Congressional Glossary (gives definitions of words used in the legislative process).

Provided by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. Links to many helpful guides.

Definitions of types of legislation and bills.

Glossary of Congressional Terms, in 11 Congress and the Nation 767 (Washington, DC: CQ Press 2006).

Donald Hirsch, 2d Ed., 1989, GPO, 122 p. (PDF). Posted on the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. website.

(PDF). 1995.

The Uniform Law Commission provides states with non-partisan, well conceived, and well drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law. Includes copies of the UCC, Probate Code, and many other model acts.

Search the current copy of the Code or any version back to 1994.

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel prepares and publishes the United States Code, which is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. Search the Code by subject or by Popular Name.

New features and functionality. Will be permanent in Dec. 2012.

This version is generated from the most recent official version made available by the US House of Representatives. Search by citation, subject, popular names or browse table of contents.

Coverage begins with the 1992 edition through the current supplement. This version includes analysis of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.

View the Constitution in its original form and with explanations. This page includes links to articles interpreting the Constitution and explanations of Constitutional issues.

You can either click and display the articles and amendments one at a time or download a PDF copy of the entire Constitution.

Guide provided by the Library of Congress. Includes texts, commentaries, historical texts and judicial decisions

The content of the CRS Annotated Constitution was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress, and published electronically in plaintext and PDF by the Government Printing Office. This edition is a hypertext interpretation of the CRS text. It links to Supreme Court opinions, the U.S. Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations, as well as enhancing navigation through linked footnotes and tables of contents.

"This site explores some of the great issues and controversies that surround our Nation's founding document."

BETA. Created as a successor to Thomas.gov. Current coverage for now. Over the next two years, Congress.gov will be adding information and features, eventually incorporating all of the information currently available on Thomas.gov.

Coverage begins with 1973 (93rd Congress).

Coverage begins with 1995 (104th Congress).

The History of Bills lists legislative actions on bills that are reported in the Congressional Record. Coverage begins with 1983 (98th Congress).

Congressional bills are legislative proposals from the House of Representatives and Senate within the United States Congress. Coverage begins with 1993 (103rd Congress).

The United States Statutes at Large, typically referred to as the Statutes at Large, is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. Coverage is 2003 (108 Congress) to 2006 (109 Congress).

The U.S. House of Representatives offers streaming video feeds of the House Floor Proceedings dating back to the beginning of the 111th Congress. Click Video to watch each session, or click Summary to view the text-only version of the proceedings.

Internet access to sessions of the House and the Senate.

You can subscribe to regular updates from Thomas by RSS and e-mail. Get updates on bills presented to the President, House and Senate floor activity and daily digest of Congressional committee information.

Instructions on how to validate the certificate on the electronic document.

Examples of files that have been changed or signed, but not certified.

Description of the government program including chain of custody information.

The Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) provides states with an outcomes-based approach to the authentication and preservation of electronic legal material. The goals of the authentication and preservation program outlined in the Act are to enable end-users to verify the trustworthiness of the legal material they are using and to provide a framework for states to preserve legal material in perpetuity in a manner that allows for permanent access.

The Act requires that official electronic legal material be:
1. Authenticated, by providing a method to determine that it is unaltered;
2. Preserved, either in electronic or print form; and
3. Accessible, for use by the public on a permanent basis.

Video explaining the Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System.

Video explores the different ways to navigate and reach content within the database.