Guide to Finding Legal Information

This guide is designed to help locate information about bills, hearings, laws, rules and regulations, & court cases. These are merely suggested starting points; use the library catalog, indexes and other resources to identify additional materials. Books or articles not available on campus may be obtained by Interlibrary Loan.

Bills Hearings U.S. Laws State Laws Rules & Regulations Federal & State Cases Articles How Do I Cite? How Laws are Made Internet Resources

Bills

To find a bill you will need:

Type Examples
Subject children's television
Bill or Amendment # H.R. 1555
Bill Sponsor Hillary Clinton

Hearings & Reports

The following are sources which will provide information on Congressional hearings and reports. As a note: Hearings are not immediately available and may take from two months to two years to become available to the public.

Type : Examples:
CIS Number and Year H361-42, 1986
Committee, Subcommittee, Agency, Lobby Group or subject area. House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection and Finance or children's television.

U.S. Laws

To find U.S. laws you will need one or more of the following:

Subject cable television
Popular Name Telephone Consumer Protection Act
Public Law Number PL-102-243
Statute Number 105 Stat 2394
U.S. Code Citation 43 USC 153
  • Thomas
  • Lexis Nexis Academic Universe -Go to Legal Research, then U.S. Code
  • U.S. Code and Popular Names table from Legal Information Institute from Cornell.
  • U.S. Code from the U.S. House of Representatives
  • U.S.Code Congressional and Administrative News-gives quite extensive background on the process before a law is "codified" in the U.S. Code. REF: KF48 .U58

State Laws

Rules & Regulations

Type Examples
Regulatory Agency FCC, FTC
Subject Area Advertising
Citation 43CFR1968, 4FCCRcd457

Federal & State Cases

  • Lexis Nexis Academic Universe -Go to Legal Research, Case Law, then either Get A Case or Federal Case Law. or State Case Law. Search either by citation or party name or by keywords. Be careful that you are searching in the right courts and for the proper time period.
  • Findlaw

Finding Articles

Available via the IC library home page using the "Electronic Research & Reference" link. Individual journal articles and papers are not listed in the library catalog and searching for relevant articles can be time consuming. Use databases which search for journal articles, legal news and law reviews and commentary. The IC Library does not own all the journals indexed in databases. For assistance identifying where a specific journal may be indexed and/or available in full text call the Reference Desk (274-3890) or or go to Serials Solutions

How to Cite Legal Information

  • Law- Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-243, 105 Stat 2394 (1992).
  • Code- Support of Political Candidates Prohibited, 47 USCA 399.
  • Law Review Article- Flynn, Prejudicial Publicity in Criminal Trials: Bringing Sheppard v. Maxwell into the Nineties, 27 New Eng. L. Rev. 857, (1993)
  • Hearing- Minority-owned Broadcast Stations: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Consumer Protection and Finance. 99th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1987)

How Laws are Made

Internet Resources