Research Guides: Law Research: United States & California: U.S. Court Cases, Laws, etc.

Constitutional and Statutory Law

Statutory law is law emanating from legislative bodies. The U.S. Congress is our Federal and California Legislature our state legislative bodies. A constitution is the primary source of law that provides the authority for executives and legislative bodies to create laws.

U.S. Constitution
Provides text with major cases and notes for the Constitution.
United States Code Annotated
Search current laws in force that are arranged by topic. Accompanying text contains court cases and background information and explanations.
Statutes At Large 1789-2011
Chronological publishing of laws.
Statutes At Large 1951 to Present
Chronological publishing of laws for every public and private law since 1951.
Public Laws 1995 to Present
Individual public laws published.
Popular Names Index (U.S. laws)
Provides popular names used and identifies the actual law title. For example, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 is also known as Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008

Case Law

U.S. Court Cases
Click on Cases, then All Federal Cases. Use the search box to look for all cases or you can choose a jurisdiction: Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, or District court cases by state.
U.S. Supreme Court Briefs
Provides summaries and arguements made before the Court. Westlaw selectively provides briefs from 1790 to present.
Oral arguements
Attorney arguments from 2010-present.

Finding Supreme Court Briefs (WESTLAW)
A guide for searching the WESTLAW database for briefs. Merits and Amicus Briefs: Comprehensive coverage from 1931 to present, selected coverage from 1870 to 1930. Petitions for writ of certiorari:Comprehensive coverage from 1985 to the present, selected coverage from 1877 to 1984.

Decisions of the United States Supreme Court (Case Summaries) Paper
Provides summaries of Supreme Court cases since 1963/64 for non lawyers and is only available in the Library's Reference Collection.

Administrative Law (Agency Rules & Regulations)

CFR (Code of Federal Regulations)
Search for Federal regulations and rules currently in force.
CFR (free version; since 1996)
Search for Federal regulations and rules currently in force.
Federal Register (Since 1960)
Search the Federal Register for a chronological publication of regulations and rules or those that may have been superseded. The Federal Register updates the CFR. Before 1994, use an index to find them which are available in microfiche.
CFR Index
Indexes the CFR.

Last Updated: Jul 26, 2023 2:07 PM