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 know the subject matter, go to www.regulations.gov.

If you know…

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