Research Subject Guides: Public Administration: Find Government/Legal Resources

Find Government/Legal Resources

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The Legislative Process (from Congress.gov)
This nine-part series explains how a bill becomes a law from its introduction to Presidential approval.
How Our Laws Are Made (Congress.gov)
Online document provided by the Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives and now available through Congress.gov.
The Federal Register: What It Is and How to Use It
Researching the Code of Massachusetts Regulations
Understanding the Federal Courts
From the United States Courts home page.

GovInfo This link opens in a new window
Full-text, permanent access to essential federal publications from all three branches of government.
Includes a number of familiar titles: the current U.S. Budget, the Congressional Record, Presidential documents and the Federal Register/Code of Federal Regulations.

MassTrac This link opens in a new window
MassTrac offers summaries and ability to track Massachusetts legislation, transcriptions of floor debates and public testimony, and voting records for all recorded votes. Includes historical data from 1995 to the present and detailed analysis of state budget proposals.

Massachusetts General Court (legislature)
NCSL - 50 state-bill tracking databases
Westlaw Campus Research Proposed & Enacted Legislation
SELECT THIS CATEGORY FROM WESTLAW'S MAIN MENU - Both federal and state bill tracking-current and historical. States may be searched as a group or individually. Legislation may also be searched by topic.

ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
Modern legislative history indexing and documents for the United States Congress.
This is the online version of the print indexes, CIS indexing and abstracting of congressional publications, and the CIS Legislative Histories (1970-present). It also includes electronic full text of selected congressional reports, documents, prints, bills and the Congressional Record; prepared statements and selected question and answer transcripts from committee hearings (1988-present); full text hearings (1824 to present); bill tracking reports that follow bills through Congress and the text of bills; public laws and the United States Code Service; the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations; biographical and financial information and voting records of members; rosters, charters and schedules for committees and subcommittees. Lastly, this database also includes access to some newspapers (Roll Call, Washington Post, The Hill) that follow political news.

United States Reports (HeinOnline Supreme Court Library)
Direct link to the official version of Supreme Court decisions, United States Reports. The official volumes are available through 2015.
U.S. Supreme Court
This site includes texts of recent decisions, the Court docket, argument transcripts, selected opinions, orders, and the Journal from 1993 to present.
U.S. Courts (Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)
Provides links to a variety of federal courts, including the Supreme Court, U.S. District Courts, U.S. Appeals Courts, and U.S. Bankruptcy Courts.
The Massachusetts Court System