The Albert Sloman Library

Law: Finding United States Case-Law

Contents

Introduction

The United States legal system has both Federal and State courts which have jurisdiction over different fields of law. The Federal judiciary is established by Article III of the Constitution and the Supreme Court has the judicial power to review cases arising under the Constitution, the Laws of the United States and treaties.

The Constitution also gives Congress the authority to create additional federal 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. But the federal courts do have a 'limited' jurisdiction i.e. they can only decide certain types of cases as determined by Congress or defined in the Constitution. This basically means that the federal courts can decide cases interpreting the Constitution, all federal laws, federal regulations and rules, and controversies between states or between the United States and foreign governments.

Finding Case-law of The Supreme Court

The Library holds the United States Supreme Court Reports Lawyers Edition (L.ed) This includes annotations similar to periodical articles. It is now in its 2nd series, cited as L.Ed. 2d. and is located in the Library at KF 101.

Supreme Court

Supreme Court Website - vol. 502- Oct. 1991-
CornellLII: Supreme Court Collection
Lexis Library - Lawyers edition 1870 onwards
Westlaw - 1790 onwards

Federal Trial and Appellate Courts

These include the US Courts of Appeals (in 12 regional circuits plus 1 Federal) and the US District Courts (in 94 judicial districts).

Court of Appeals decisions are published in the Federal Reporter (F) and is now in its third series (3d) KF 106 and Westlaw
District Court decisions were published in the Federal Reporter up to 1932 and are now published in the Federal Supplement (F. Supp.) and is in its second series (2d). 1d - KF 107 and Westlaw 2d - KF 107 and Westlaw
CornellLII: Federal Law Collection
U.S. Courts Website

State Courts

States have their own hierarchy of courts with a Supreme Court at the top. Most states have their own reporters.
National Center for State Courts
Cornell LII State Courts
Lexis Library
Westlaw

Further Information

IALS United States Research Guide - Originally compiled by Paul Norman, Reference Librarian, August 2004. Updated by Lesley Young, Information Resources Manager, February 2008.

LLRX.com A Guide to the U.S. Federal Legal System: Web-Based Publicly Accessible Sources By Gretchen Feltes.