This guide was originally prepared to be added with similar guides for legal research of many foreign jurisdictions. The intended audience was global in scope and one without access to the printed sources and fee-based databases in American federal law. Since its first publication I have come to realize that the audience includes many internet users who require reliable legal sources through publicly accessible web-based databases. Many of the materials here are recent and not comprehensive in scope and date coverage. The guide is not intended to supplant traditional sources of legal research. It is my hope that it serves as an introduction to the field and leads the user to a more comprehensive exploration of American federal law.

II. Introduction to the United States Legal System

A. The Structure of the Federal Government

The legal system in the United States is an often uneasy balance of national government and the governments of the fifty states. There are parallel systems of executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and shared powers among the states and the federal governments. The relationship between the state and federal systems can be quite complex. Simply stated, the powers of the federal government are specifically defined in the Constitution. Those powers not expressly prescribed therein are left to the jurisdiction of the fifty sovereign states. Conflicts between state and federal laws are governed by the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, which declares that all laws enacted in the furtherance of the Constitution are the "supreme law of the land," and that federal laws have legal superiority over a state constitution or law.

B. The Constitution

The Constitution is the founding document for the United States federal government. It is the basic and "supreme law of the land." It defines the structure of the federal government, provides the legal foundation on which all its actions must rest, and guarantees the rights due to its citizens. No laws may contradict any of the Constitution=s principles. The federal courts have jurisdiction to interpret the Constitution and evaluate the constitutionality of federal and state laws.

The Constitution creates a federal government that is comprised of three separate and equal branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch, Congress, has the authority to make laws. The executive branch, the President and cabinet, has administrative and regulatory power. The judiciary interprets the laws. The government is designed to provide a system of "checks and balances," in which each branch has oversight powers over the others. For example, the President may veto legislation passed by Congress. For most legal research, the judicial review of legislation is most substantial. Although Congress has the authority to modify prospectively a judgment of the Supreme Court, in practice, the Court is considered to have the "last word" in United States law.

· United States Constitution http://www.archives.gov/national_archives_experience/charters/constitution.html

· Congressional Research Service Annotated Constitution http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/

· Senate Virtual Reference Desk: Constitution http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Constitution_vrd.htm

III. Legislation

A. Background[1]

Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution creates a bicameral legislature known as Congress, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The chief function of Congress is to enact laws. The House and the Senate have equal legislative functions and powers. There is no "upper" or "lower" house in Congress. Legislation must be passed by the majority of each chamber of Congress before it is sent to the President to be signed into law. Among the powers vested in Congress is the power to lay and collect taxes, duties and tariffs and to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states.

The Senate has 100 members (two from each state), elected to six year terms. The House of Representatives has 435 members, who serve two year terms. Each chamber has standing committees that prepare and draft legislation.

· Senate http://www.senate.gov/

· House of Representatives http://clerk.house.gov/

· Congressional Biographical Directory http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp

· Congressional Directory, 1995- present http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cdirectory/

For more information about Congress and the enactment of federal legislation, see

· How Our Laws Are Made http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html

· Tying It All Together http://www.house.gov/house/Tying_it_all.shtml

B. Proposed Legislation

Proposed legislation may be initiated in either chamber of Congress in one of four formats: bills, joint resolution, concurrent resolution or simple resolution. The bill format is most common. There are two kinds of bills: public and private. Public bills affect the public generally; private bills are used to address the matters of individuals. When a bill is introduced, it is numbered by the clerk of the house introducing the legislation. This is the first reading of the bill. It is next referred to one of the standing committees.

The committee may table the bill or continue the drafting process. Hearings may be held on the subject of the bill. The committee may debate and amend the bill before voting on it. If there is a favorable vote, the bill is sent to the floor of the house where the clerk reads it line by line to the house. Members may debate and offer amendments. After a third reading the bill is put to a vote. When a bill is voted upon and passed by one chamber, it is referred to the other house. If the approved bill is reported in the second houses, where it may be accepted as is or amended. If amended and passed in the second chamber, the bill is returned to the originating house for final vote.

Proposed legislation may be found at the following:

· THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov Library of Congress legislative website, 1989-

· GPO Access Congressional Publications http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html United States Government Printing Office under the heading "Congressional Bills"

· GPO Access: History of Bills www.gpoaccess.gov/hob/ lists legislative actions on bills reported in the Congressional Record since 1983- Documents are in ASCII only

· Bill summaries http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/?109search.html 100^th Congress, 1987-

· Full-text of all proposed legislation http://thomas.loc.gov/home/multicongress/multicongress.html - 101st Congress, 1989-

· Law Librarians= Society Current Status Table of Selected Legislation http://www.llsdc.net/sourcebook/docs/statustable.pdf

C. Enacted Legislation

1. Presidential Action

Each bill is passed by Congress is enrolled for Presidential action. A bill becomes law by Presidential signature. The Constitution requires the President to approve the bill by signature or to veto it by returning the bill to the house from which it originated with his objections for reconsideration. The objections are read and debated in Congress before a roll call vote is taken. A veto overridden with a two-thirds vote in each chamber, and the bill becomes law. Finally, a bill may become law by "pocket veto," whereby the President does not return the bill to Congress with objections within10 days.

Lists of Presidential vetoes may be found at the following:

· Vetoes, 1789-2006 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0801767.html

· List of Presidential vetoes, 1789- http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/vetoes.html

· Congressional Overrides of Presidential Vetoes http://www.house.gov/rules/98-157.pdf Search under CRS reports, Presidential relations. The information was last updated in 2004.

2. Publication of Enacted Laws

When a law is signed by the President, it is assigned a public law number. The first printing of the public law is known as a "slip law." The Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration prepares and publishes the enacted legislation. The printed law has a heading that includes the public law number, date of approval, bill number and title. Statutes at Large enumerations appear in the top right corner of the page. Annotations citing to laws and where the text will be codified in the United States Code appear in the margins.

At the end of each Congressional session, the slip laws are compiled in the United States Statutes at Large. It is the official chronological publication of the laws and resolutions enacted by Congress. In addition, the text of amendments to the Constitution and presidential proclamations are found in Statutes at Large. Because the text of a public law remains unchanged from the slip law to Statutes at Large, there is not a separate database on GPO Access.

Full text of enacted United States legislation can be found at the following:

· GPO Access Public Laws http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/index.html 104^th Congress B ASCII & PDF formats

· Thomas: Public Laws http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d109/d109laws.html 94^th Congress, 1975- PDF format

D. Codified Law

The Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives prepares the official subject compilation of all general and permanent laws, known as the United States Code. There are fifty subject "titles" found in the United States Code . New editions are published every six years, with cumulative supplements printed at the end of each regular session of Congress. The current edition of the United States Code is the 2000 edition.

The United States Code may be found at the following:

· Law Revision Counsel - US Code http://uscode.house.gov/download/download.shtml (can be downloaded)

o LRC search engine http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

· GPO Access - US Code http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html Full versions of the 1994 and 2000 codes in HTML format.

o GPO Access US Code searching guide http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/tips.html

· Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ Full text, searchable current version of the Code

o Popular Name Table http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/topn/

o Index of Titles [2] http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/#TITLES

Tables for updating the United States Code are found on the Law Revision Counsel website. The tables reflect where recently enacted laws will appear in the Code and, conversely, which sections of the Code have been amended. Coverage begins with the 106^th Congress in 1999 and is updated through the 109th Congress.

· LRC - United States Code Classification Tables http://uscode.house.gov/classification/tables.shtml

E. Sources for Legislative Intent

Legal researchers may need to look beyond the enacted language of a statute to find the intent of the lawmakers in drafting the law. Legislative history research may be used as a means of interpreting a statute. The sources for legislative intent follow the history of the passage of the law, from introduction to committee documentation to floor debate and Presidential remarks.

1. Committee Reports and Documents

The work of preparing and drafting legislation is done largely by the standing committees of both the House and Senate. There are nineteen House standing committees and sixteen in the Senate. Nomenclature differs in the standing committees in the House and Senate. Each bill is referred to the appropriate committee. If a committee votes to report a bill to the larger house, a report is written to analyze and describe the purpose and scope of the proposed law. There is a section-by-section analysis of the bill. It accompanies a bill when it is returned to the introducing chamber for debate and a vote. Reports often include statements of the committee's rationale for its recommendation for passage of the bill. A committee report is the most important document of legislative intent. A committee report is numbered firstly by Congress, and then sequentially (i.e. 106-1).

Committee reports are found at the following:

· THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov/cp110/cp110query.html Full text of Senate and House committee reports since 1995, accessible by keyword, bill number, report number and committee

· GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/index.html Full text, searchable files

Selected Congressional standing committees post their legislative reports on the Committee's website. Links to standing committee websites:

· Senate Committees http://www.senate.gov/committees/index.cfm

· House of Representatives Committees http://www.house.gov/house/CommitteeWWW.shtml

2. Congressional Hearings

Public hearings may be held by the standing and special committees of either the House of Representatives or the Senate. Experts and interested persons and groups may be invited by committees to speak to the need of legislation or air a controversial situation. Committees generally require witnesses to file a written statement of their proposed testimony. Transcripts of public hearings are frequently printed and distributed.

Committee hearings schedules and selected statements and transcripts can be found on the THOMAS website under the individual Committee names.

· Senate Committees http://www.senate.gov/committees/index.cfm

· House of Representatives Committees http://www.house.gov/house/CommitteeWWW.shtml

· GPO Access to Committee Publications (Reports & Hearings) http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html

3. Congressional Record

The Congressional Record is published each day the Congress is in session. It is the official record of the debates, proceedings and activities of Congress. It presents a complete rendition of all bill and amendment texts and of all motions or procedural matters.

Full text searchable files are found at:

· THOMAS: Congressional Record, http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r110query.html 101^st Congress (1989/90)-

· GPO Access Congressional Record and Index http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html

· 1994 - PDF and ASCII texts

· Congressional Record Index http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cri/index.html GPO Access searchable index, 1983-

· History of bills in GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/hob/index.html

F. Historical databases

For historical information about legislation the following sources can be consulted:

A Century of Lawmaking http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html US Congressional Documents & Debates, 1774-1875

US House of Representatives. Office of the Clerk. Historical Highlights http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/index.html

Tables of the each Congress, 1789-2003: Members of Congress, party divisions, session dates, vetoes, joint meetings, sessions and inaugurations.

Yale Law School's Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm

Full text searchable documents including the American Constitution-A Documentary Record, Federalist Papers, Jefferson's Papers, Madison's Notes on Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, State Constitutions 1776-, Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, et cetera

Emory University School of Law: US Founding Documents http://www.law.emory.edu/erd/docs.html

Scanned copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Federalist Papers.

IV. The Judiciary

A. The Court System[3]

Article III of the Constitution establishes the federal judiciary branch of government. The Supreme Court was organized in 1790 with judicial power to review cases arising under the Constitution, the Laws of the United States and treaties. Statutory authority for the Court can be found in 28 U. S. Code Sect.1251 et seq. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to create additional federal courts. The hierarchical system which evolved is Courts of Appeal and lower level trial courts, Federal District Courts.

The federal courts have the judicial responsibility to rule on the constitutionality of federal laws, to interpret and to apply the laws to resolve disputes. The federal courts have "limited" jurisdiction in that they can only decide certain types of cases as determined by Congress or defined in the Constitution. That means the federal courts decide cases interpreting the Constitution, all federal laws, federal regulations and rules, and controversies between states or between the United States and foreign governments.

There are two outstanding websites for further information about the United States Courts:

· Federal Judicial Center http://www.fjc.gov is the research and education center for the federal judicial system. The Education Division of the Center conducts research on federal judicial procedures, court operations and the history of the courts. There is an excellent introduction to the judiciary, entitled Inside the Federal Courts http://www.fjc.gov/federal/courts.nsf found on this website.

· The Administrative Office of the US Courts http://www.uscourts.gov/adminoff.html maintains an educational outreach program that publishes materials to be used in learning about the federal courts. Understanding the Courts http://www.uscourts.gov/understand03/index.html is the publication prepared by them. An overview of the federal court system in a number of foreign languages is found at this website. The following links are examples of guides found:

· French http://www.uscourts.gov/library/French.pdf

· Italian http://www.uscourts.gov/library/InternationalBook-FEDCTS2_it.pdf

· Russian http://www.uscourts.gov/library/russian.pdf

· Serbian http://www.uscourts.gov/library/UFCserbian.doc

· Spanish http://www.uscourts.gov/library/international-finalfinalSpanish.pdf

B. Structure of the Courts

1. Federal Trial and Appellate Courts

The federal district courts are the trial courts, both civil and criminal, in the federal system. There are 94 federal district courts. Each district includes a bankruptcy court. In addition, there are two special trial courts with nationwide jurisdiction over international trade/customs, the Court of International Trade, and the Court of Federal Claims, with jurisdiction over most claims for money damages against the United States, disputes over federal contracts and unlawful "takings" of private property by the federal government.

A lower court's ruling on an issue of law may be appealed to the intermediate appellate court. In the federal court systems, these intermediate courts are the United States Courts of Appeal. The 94 federal district courts are organized into 12 regional appellate courts and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. These courts hear appeals from the district courts and federal administrative agencies. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, located in Washington, has nationwide jurisdiction to hear appeals from specialized cases, like patent cases, as well as appeals for the Court of International Trade and Court of Federal Claims.

Federal Case law can be found at:

· Administrative Office of the Courts http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html Links page connects to the Courts of Appeals, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, US Tax Court, Court of International Trade, et al; Coverage varies from court to court, generally 1995-

· Cornell's Legal Information Institute's http://www.law.cornell.edu/federal/opinions.html Judicial Opinions page links to federal courts' decisions available on the internet. A search engine http://www.law.cornell.edu/usca/search/ is available for finding US Courts of Appeals decisions available on the internet.

· Federal Court Locator http://www.law.villanova.edu/library/researchguides/fedcourtlocator.asp Sponsored by Villanova University School of Law - Opinions from the US Courts of Appeal, District Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Court of Federal Claims, Court of International Trade; Coverage varies from court to court, generally 1995-

· FedLaw Gateway to Federal Courts http://www.thecre.com/fedlaw/intro3.htm

· FindLaw.com's http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/courts/index.html Cases and Codes section links to the federal circuit courts. Browsing and full text searching is available on this website.

Biographical information for federal judges can be found at:

· Federal Judicial Center's http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj

Federal Judges Biographical Database All federal judges, 1789-

C. United States Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court is the court of final appeal. The Court is comprised of the Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, nominated by the President and confirmed by Congress. Cases heard by the Supreme Court usually involve questions about the Constitution or federal law. Cases may begin in the federal or state courts. The court has discretionary power to decline review of cases from lower courts by denying petitions of certiorari or dismissing appeals.

Background information about the Supreme Court can be found on the following page from the United States Supreme Court website:

· United States Supreme Court's "About the Court" links

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/about.html Overview of the Court, Interpretation of the Constitution, Court and its procedures.

· Supreme Court Historical Society http://www.supremecourthistory.org/02_history/02.html

· Federal Judicial Center's History of the Federal Judiciary files http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf Includes landmark legislation files, a listing of impeached federal judges, history of the courts and a study of the Amistad case.

Biographical information:

· Current justices

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf

· Supreme Court Historical Society's Guide for researching the Court (including biographies) http://www.supremecourthistory.org/06_research/06_a01.html

· Federal Judicial Center http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj All federal judges from 1789 - to present

United States Supreme Court cases:

· United States Supreme Court http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html 2002- includes docket information, calendars, et cetera) The Court has bound volumes of US Reports http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/boundvolumes.html in PDF format beginning with volume 502, October 1991 term.

· Cornell Legal Information Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html Supreme Court Collection, all opinions, 1990-

· Historical cases by topic http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/topic.htm

· FindLaw.com Supreme Court http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/resources.html

All opinions, 1999- (including briefs, calendars, rules, etc)

· Findlaw Supreme Court Cases http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html All opinions, 1893-

· FedWorld http://supcourt.ntis.gov/ Decisions from 1935 - 1975

· Northwestern University's Oyez http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage Multimedia database, include audio files of oral arguments, selected decisions back to 1961

United States Supreme Court rules:

· United States Supreme Court Rules (PDF) http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ctrules/2007rulesofthecourt.pdf

· United States Supreme Court Rules (HTML) http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/supct/overview.html

United States Supreme Court briefs:

· ABA Public Education Division's Supreme Court Merit Briefs http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/home.html 2003-

· FindLaw.com Supreme Court Briefs http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/supreme_court/briefs/index.html 1999- Arranged chronologically by Supreme Court term, then alphabetically by case name

· United States Supreme Court Records and Briefs Yale Curiae Project http://curiae.law.yale.edu/

· US Dept. of Justice Office of the Solicitor General government briefs http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/briefs/search.html 1997- Searchable by keyword, type of filing, client or subject. Arranged chronologically by Supreme Court term.

United States Supreme Court Justice Confirmation hearings:

· GPO Access - Senate Confirmation Supreme Court nomination hearings http://www.gpoaccess.gov/senate/judiciary/scourt.html 92^nd Congress, 1971-

· Thomas - Presidential Nominations http://thomas.loc.gov/home/nomis.html 100^th Congress, 1987-

· Law Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/law/find/nominations.html July 2005-

D. Courts of Special Jurisdiction

In addition to the courts described above, there are federal courts with jurisdiction over specialized areas of law including bankruptcy, tax, federal claims, international trade and military appeals. Each of the 94 federal districts has a bankruptcy court. The US Tax Court handles appeals from the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue. The US Court of Federal Claims and the US Court of International Trade have nationwide jurisdiction. The Court of International Trade has jurisdiction over civil actions arising out of import transactions and federal statutes affecting international trade. The Court of Federal Claims hears cases involving money claims with the United States. The Court of Military Appeals is independent of the Department of Defense and is composed of five civilian judges who act as the final appellate tribunal in military law.

Recent decisions may be found at the following:

· BankruptcyData.Com's links to bankruptcy courts http://www.bankruptcydata.com/Courts/Bankruptcy_Links.htm

· United States Court of Federal Claims http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/

· United States Court of International Tra