News Reporting & Writing Research Resources: Politics, Government & Law

Legal Research

The following sources can help you find related court cases, legal codes, and scholarly law review journal articles; as well as background information and definitions of terms.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, 2d edition
- Provides current information on more than 5,000 legal topics; cites relevant cases and statutes. Includes definitions of legal terms and more.
Encyclopedia of the American Constitution
Gale Encyclopedia of American Law
California Law Research Guide
- Detailed guide on how to research California law in the Oviatt Library and online.
FDsys (Federal Digital System, U.S. Government Printing Office)
- Includes recent primary sources of information from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal government.
FindLaw Cases and Codes
- Search U.S. and State constitutions, statutes, cases and more. Note: FindLaw is not completely free. If you are prompted for a credit card to retrieve information, don't do it! Use LexisNexis Academic legal research to find similar information about court cases or codes.
FindLaw U.S. Constitution: First Amendment
- From the Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation.
FindLaw Legal Dictionary
- Definitions of legal terms and legal usage from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, 1996.
LexisNexis Academic
- Use the Find a Case search to quickly locate a court case by name, e.g., United States v. American Library Association or citation, e.g., 539 U.S. 19.
- Use the U.S. Legal search options menu to locate landmark cases, law review journal articles, Supreme Court briefs, U.S. and state Supreme Court and Appellate Court cases, U.S. District court cases, U.S. and state statutes, codes, and constitutions; and the Code of Federal Regulations.
Supreme Court of the United States
- The official web site of the Supreme Court. In addition to the opinions, you can also read or listen to recent oral arguments presented at the Supreme Court.
U.S. Law Research Guide
- Detailed guide on how to research U.S. law in the Oviatt Library and online.

Politics, Government & Law

General

Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Guide
Election News
Legal Research Sources (Links to sources of legislative, judicial, and administrative law, including periodical databases.)
League of Women Voters
MAPlight.org ("public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways." Includes U.S., California, and Los Angeles information. )
Political Science Research Sources (Links to library databases and websites for locating primary sources and periodical literature.)
Yahoo--Public Policy Institutes (Links to various "think tanks" and other public policy research institutes.)

Government Websites

In addition to the links and information provided on the Library's Government Publications page, the following websites lead to more specific information on government at various levels.