presented by: jason p. webb barnes dulac watkins
TRANSCRIPT
GOVERNMENT INTERNET RESOURCES:
FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL
Presented by: Jason P. WebbBarnes Dulac Watkins
How and where to find information on:
◦ Statutes, Bills and Legislative History
◦ Regulations and Agencies
◦ Court Opinions, Forms, Rules and Dockets
Today’s Agenda:
Attorneys are in the business of interpreting the law.
Depending on what information you have will determine the best way to locate the information you’re seeking
The baseline: google.com. This presentation is geared towards going to the source.
How to find the law?
Statutes, Bills and Legislative History
PART I
A “statute” is enacted legislation. With respect to the federal government, a statute is legislation that has been passed by Congress and signed into law by the President (or by overriding veto).
Statutes
If you know the year of enactment you can search the Statutes at Large. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectiontab.action
Statutes at Large are a list of what laws were enacted during each two-year Congress.
Statutes at Large are maintained by the GPO (Government Printing Office) as part of FDsys (Fed’l Digital System)
If you know…
Statutes at Large Cont’d
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsllink.html
What about older laws…
If you have a citation, use Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (“LII”), Justia, or other meta-sites.
LII provides free access to the U.S. Code, an index of all federal law grouped by subject matter
If you know…
LII Cont’d
The House of Representatives maintains a searchable U.S. Code at http://uscode.house.gov/browse.xhtml
If you know the subject matter...
First a word on Consolidated vs. Unconsolidated Statutes and P.S. vs. Pa.C.S.A
The general assembly’s website is versatile.◦ Good search functionality◦ Search by citation◦ Search by year of enactment
Pennsylvania Statutes
Pennsylvania Statutes Cont’d
For local laws, go to the local government homepage: (sites.state.pa.us/govlocal.html)
Local Laws
For legislative information for the City of Pittsburgh:
(pittsburgh.legistar.com/Legislation.aspx)
Pittsburgh Legislation
It was a bill.
There are thousands of bills that are introduced during each two-year Congress.
Approximately 5 percent of bills will be enacted into law.
Before it was a law…
Go to Thomas, a free site maintained by the Library of Congress.
To find out about bills…
Thomas is the template for the software used on Capitol Hill to track legislative action
It is updated frequently
It permits you to perform bill number, subject matter and text searches.
It provides text of all bills pending in Congress
What can Thomas do?
The Pennsylvania General Assembly is a good resource for past and current legislative information.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/bills/
Pennsylvania bills
Pennsylvania bills cont’d
Three main bases for Legislative History are:
◦ Committee Reports/ Conference Reports / Hearings
◦ Floor speeches / Debate / Sponsor Statements
◦ Presidential Signing Statements
Legislative History = U.S. Serial Set a.k.a Congress’ papers
Legislative History
After being introduced, a bill is assigned to the committee responsible for the relevant subject matter.
A committee report provides a detailed
overview of the legislation. It can include definitions, findings of fact, justification for action by Congress, as well as cost estimates.
Committee & Conference Reports
http://beta.congress.gov/congressional-reports/
To find Committee Reports
Conference Reports are agreements between the House and Senate that are prepared to resolve differences in House- and Senate-passed legislation.
http://beta.congress.gov/congressional-reports/
Older committee and conference reports are in the U.S. Serial Set available at:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss.html
To find Conference Reports
The Congressional Record is a daily transcription of what is said on the House and Senate floors.
Floor Speeches etc.
Committee Reports / Conference Reports
“Hearings are not published and in most situations committee reports are not distributed.”
http://www.law.pitt.edu/library/paresearchstatutory
Instead – use legislative deliberations / debate
Pennsylvania Legislative History
Journals are available online for Pennsylvania’s General Assembly
Chamber Deliberations
For older legislation, use A History of House and Senate Bills in conjunction with hard copies of the Journals.
For additional assistance tracking down a resource, call the Pennsylvania Legislative Reference Bureau at 717-787-4816.
Penn. Legislative History Cont’d
Default for the pre-internet age
All federal legislative information is available online for free beginning in the early 1990’s.
If what you want was published prior to that, you may need to get thee to the library.
There are six libraries in Pittsburgh that are repositories of federal materials◦ CMU, Pitt, Pitt Law, Duq., LaRoche and Allegh. Cty
Law Library
Pre- and Post-Digital
Regulations and Agencies
PART II
A regulation is agency policy making that has the force of law. A regulation is promulgated or made effective by a federal agency following notice and comment rulemaking.
Where to find a regulation depends on what you know.
Regulations
If you have a citation, you can go directly to the Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”)
Navigating the CFR without a cite can be daunting
Organization of CFR:◦ Part◦ Chapter◦ Sub-Chapter◦ Part __ (number)◦ Sub-part _ (letter)
If you have a citation…
The CFR is the administrative equivalent of the U.S. Code: www.ecfr.gov
The CFR
The Pennsylvania Code is the Pennsylvania analog to the CFR. http://www.pacode.com/
Pennsylvania Regulations
Sources:
◦ Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NRPM)
◦ Preamble to final rule
◦ Agency guidance on interpretation
Regulatory History
The Federal Register is a daily publication containing all official administrative actions taken by agencies of the federal government.
Federal Register
Pennsylvania Bulletin is published on a weekly basis. http://www.pabulletin.com
Pennsylvania Bulletin
Agency home pages are often very helpful in finding relevant regulatory history
Where to look?
County Agencies
Proposed Rules
There are often informal statement of policy that will not be published in the federal register.
Interpretive Guidance
Another valuable resource is guidance regarding the meaning of the regulation provided to its own employees.
Agency Employee Manuals
Court Opinions, Forms, Rules and Dockets
PART III
Portals (meta-sites)◦ One-stop-shopping◦ Intended to quickly direct you to all the resources
you are likely to want
Examples:◦ Cornell Univ’s Legal Information Institute◦ FindLaw◦ Justia◦ Washburn Univ's WashLaw.
Finding shortcuts to opinions, dockets, forms and rules
Use Google?
But, if you only know the parties, use Justia.com or plainsite.org
To find opinions by citation…
Similarly, if you know the year of decision and the deciding court, you can use Justia.com
If you know…
Pennsylvania Opinions
Allegheny County Opinions
The U.S. Courts maintains a great site, (www.uscourts.gov)
Complete sets of Rules (Civil / Criminal / BKR / Appellate / Evidence / Local)
Federal Rules / Forms
Pacer.gov is a fed’l govt. site that provides access to dockets
www.recapthelaw.org: save yourself some dimes
Additionally, see plainsite.org, which provides detailed docket information
Dockets / Documents
RECAP cont’d
Pennsylvania Dockets
Rules can be obtained at: http://
www.pacode.com/secure/data/231/231toc.html
Forms can be obtained at: http://www.pacourts.us/forms/for-the-public
Pennsylvania Rules / Forms
http://www.pacourts.us/forms/for-the-public
Allegheny County Local Rules