Local Government Law

Legal Resources on the Internet

Case Law

Federal

Legal Information Institute (Cornell)—Project Hermes contains all opinions of the court issued since May of 1990, links to sites with earlier cases, and a collection of over 600 of the most important historical decisions of the court.

URL: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/

FindLaw — Searchable database of Supreme Court decisions since 1893 (U.S. Reports 150-, 1893-). Browsable by year and US Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full text.

URL: http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html

FLITE Database Archive —This archive of opinions was created from the official U.S. Air Force historic file of Supreme Court decisions from its FLITE (“Federal Legal Information Through Electronics”) system. The archive consists of over 7400 Supreme Court opinions dating from 1937 through 1975, from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports.

URL: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/supcrt/index.html or http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/

Supreme Court of the United States—Opinions —Latest opinions and Where to Obtain Supreme Court Opinions (print, electronic, microform) link—http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/obtainopinions.pdf

          URL: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html

United States Courts of Appeals Opinions

Federal Courts Finder (Emory Law Library)—Links to all the Circuit Courts (most with cases starting in the 1990's—the First Circuit starts in 2000) and the Supreme Court.

URL: http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDCTS/

Federal Court Locator (Villanova School of Law Library Research and Study Guides)—Includes links to all the Circuit Courts (most with cases starting in the 1990's—the First Circuit starts in 2000), the Supreme Court, and other federal judicial resources.

URL: http://www.law.villanova.edu/library/researchandstudyguides/

federalcourtlocator.asp

United States District Courts

Federal Court Locator(Villanova School of Law Library Research and Study Guides)—includes links to all the District Courts with websites.

URL: http://www.law.villanova.edu/library/researchandstudyguides/

federalcourtlocator.asp

U.S. Courts - District Courts(Maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts)—includes links to all the District Courts with websites.

          URL: http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks/

State

General

FindLaw-US State Laws-Cases, Codes, Statutes and Regulations includes state appellate opinions.

URL: http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/#statelaw

State Court Web Sites (National Center for State Courts)—Links to state and local court web sites.

URL: http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/info_court_web_sites.html

North Carolina Cases
The Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of North Carolina —1997 to present for the Supreme Court; 1996 to present for the Court of Appeals.

URL: http://www.aoc.state.nc.us/www/public/html/opinions.htm

Constitutions and Statutes

Federal

GPO Access—Congressional Bills—Searchable site covering 103rd Congress to present, with bills and related documents.

        URL:http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/index.html

Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet— Primary source for Congressional documents: bill text (101st Congress—1989/90-present), bill summaries and legislative status (93^rdCongress—1973/74-present), vetoed bills, Congressional Record text and Congressional Record Index, committee reports, explanations of the legislative process, historic documents, and more. All data browsable and searchable.

URL: http://thomas.loc.gov/

United States Code(Legal Information Institute—Cornell Law School)—Contains the most recent version of the Code made available by the US House of Representatives. Includes an update service (available onscreen as you look at each section) using the House servers and the Library of Congress Thomas service to supply accurate updates to any section which has changed.

URL: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

U.S. Code (searchable) —Internet Law Library— The database includes all official U.S. Code notes and appendices, as well as the Table of Popular Names. Includes Classification Tables that show where recently enacted laws will appear in the Code and which sections of the Code have been amended by those laws. Earlier versions (1991-99) are also available. This is the one portion of the old House Internet Law Library that hasn't been turned over to other sites.

            URL: http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml

United States Constitution (Law Library of Congress)—links to full text and annotated versions, including the Congressional Research Service annotations via GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/index.html) and Findlaw (smaller segments - http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution / or http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/constitution .

            URL:  http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/usconst.html

State

Guide to Law Online—U.S. States and Territories(Law Library of Congress)—Comprehensive list of state and territorial legal resources.
      
         URL: http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/usstates.html

Internet Law Library—U.S. State and Territorial Laws—Links (by state) to statutes, publications, and many other state legal materials. Includes a link to model acts and interstate compacts. The House of Representatives is no longer administering the Internet Law Library and has turned it over to several law schools, companies, and government sites.

URL: http://www.lawguru.com/ilawlib/17.htm 

State Statutes and Legislation on the Internet —Links to sites that contain the full text of state statutes, state constitutions and other legislative resources.

URL: http://www.prairienet.org/~scruffy/f.htm

North Carolina

North Carolina Constitution (North Carolina General Assembly)
    URL: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Legislation/constitution/ncconstitution.html or
            http://www.ncleg.net/Legislation/constitution/ncconstitution.html

North Carolina Constitution (State Library of North Carolina)

          URL: http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/stgovt/preconst.htm

North Carolina General Statutes —if direct link doesn't work, go to http://www.ncleg.net/ or http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/ and click on NC Statutes.

           URL: http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/Statutes/Statutes.asp or        
           http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/Statutes/Statutes.asp

Rules and Regulations

Federal

Code of Federal Regulations (National Archives and Records Administration)—The CFR via the United States Government Printing Office’s Access Service—current through July 2002. Revisions for 1997 through 2001 (and for part of 1996) are also available.

URL: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html#page1 or
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html

Federal Register Online via GPO (National Archives and Records Administration)—1995 (Volume 60) to present with links to an earlier version of the 1994 Federal Register, the CFR, and other sources of information concerning Congress and federal rules and legislation.

         URL: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html

United States Internal Revenue Service —Forms, publications, and information.

          URL: http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/

State

Also! (American Law Sources On-Line)—The available state administrative codes or compilations of rules are found here intermixed with state cases, statutes, and other materials.

URL: http://www.lawsource.com/also/

FindLaw: U.S. State Laws: Cases and Codes —Again, the available state administrative codes or compilations of rules are found here intermixed with state cases, statutes, and legislative codes.

URL: http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/state.html

North Carolina

Local Government

Municipal Code Corporation Codes of Ordinances Database —This database is a collection consisting mostly of local government Codes of Ordinances from around the United States.

         URL: http://www.municode.com/resources/online%20Library.asp

Municipal Codes Online (Seattle Public Library) —Another list of links to city and county codes available for unrestricted searching on the World Wide Web.

        URL:  http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=collection_municodes

Researching Local Government Charters and Ordinances (North Carolina General Assembly—Legislative Library)   

            URL: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/LegLibrary/research/chartersandordinances.html or
            http://www.ncleg.net/LegLibrary/research/chartersandordinances.html

Information

Capitolimpact.com —(Formerly HPI Infosystem) This site provides a wide range of information on local, state, and federal government using the counties, boroughs, and parishes of the United States as its basic building blocks.

URL: http://www.capitolimpact.com/gw/

County Information Page (National Association of Counties) —Contains NACo’s comprehensive database of information on its member counties, including a listing of county officials, and links to the HPI InfoSystem, which provides nationwide county statistics such as economic and demographic data. Also includes links to individual county and state county association home pages. Now includes NACo's collection of county ordinances. Use the About Counties (URL: http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Counties) link on the NACo home page (URL: http://www.naco.org/ ).

Local Government Web Sites (Governing Magazine) —Large list of sites related to local government (online supplement to State and Local Government Sourcebook).

URL: http://www.governing.com/govlinks/glocal.htm

State & Local Government Links (Public Technology Inc.) —State-by-state breakdown of municipal and county home pages.

URL: http://www.pti.nw.dc.us/links/index.html

State & Local Government on the Net (Piper Resources) — Includes another state-by-state breakdown of municipal and county home pages.

URL: http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm

State County Associations (National Association of Counties) —Use the National Association of Counties (NACo) home page (URL: http://www.naco.org/)—The state county associations are found at http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=
State_Associations&Template=/cffiles/naco/stateassoc.cfm under Affiliates in the About NACo Section.

State Municipal Leagues (National League of Cities) —Found in the Membership section of the Inside NLC drop box.

North Carolina

North Carolina Association of County Commissioners —Home page of the statewide organization for North Carolina counties.

URL: http://www.ncacc.org/

North Carolina Cities and Towns (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government) —List of North Carolina city, town, and village websites with corresponding county.

           URL: http://www.sog.unc.edu/library/cities.html

North Carolina Counties (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government) —List of North Carolina county websites.

          URL: http://www.sog.unc.edu/library/counties.html

North Carolina League of Municipalities —Home page of the statewide organization for North Carolina municipalities.

URL: http://www.nclm.org/

Office of State Budget and Management—State of North Carolina —Includes the State Data Center (a consortium of state and local agencies that provides information and data about the State and its component geographic areas. Its mission is to make it easy and inexpensive to locate the North Carolina data you need) and the State Demographics Unit (prepares annual population estimates for all North Carolina municipalities. It prepares county and state population estimates and projections by age, race, and sex).

URL: http://www.osbm.state.nc.us/osbm/

Meta-Indexes

URL: http://www.lawsource.com/also/

FedLaw ( Center for Regulatory Effectiveness) —These materials primarily include Federal laws, rules, and regulations; Federal judicial decisions; some state laws; arbitration and mediation; general research and reference sources; professional associations; and legal-related how-to locations. They do not include information about law schools, journals or other sources of articles, law book publishers or other similar commercial sources, or information about adoption, divorce, entertainment law, and other topics that are not typically handled by Federal lawyers.

URL: http://www.thecre.com/fedlaw/default.htm

FindLaw (with access to LawCrawler)—Huge directory of law resources on the Internet (Now part of West Group). Includes the legal search engine LawCrawler (http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/). Indexes and subject categories are provided.

URL: http://www.findlaw.com/

FirstGov —official U.S. gateway to all government information administered by the U.S. General Services Administration.

          URL: http://www.firstgov.gov/index.shtml

GPO Access —Electronic Government Information Products: The Federal Register, Congressional Record, Congressional Bills and other Federal Government information are available online via GPO Access, a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). 

URL: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/

Guide to Law Online (Law Library of Congress Public Services Division)—annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online.

          URL: http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/index.html

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School —Collection of recent and historic Supreme Court decisions, hypertext versions of the full U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure, and other important legal materials—federal, state, foreign, and international.

URL: http://www.law.cornell.edu/index.html

NCINFO —Access to School of Government resources and links to North Carolina state and local government information. Also contains pointers to other state and federal sites, as well as news, weather, library catalogs, and other reference material.

URL: http://www.sog.unc.edu/

Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet —Comprehensive source of information about all aspects of Congress and federal legislation with links to many other federal and state sites—developed by the Library of Congress.

URL: http://thomas.loc.gov/

University of Michigan Documents Center: State and Local Government on the Web —Huge compilation of state and local government websites including such gems as Laws Online (http://www.lawsonline.com/) sponsored by the commercial Lawchek site.

URL: http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/state.html

World Wide Web Virtual Library-Law—Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington —Offers legal information by organization and topic and includes an extensive list of legal search tools and links to other large index pages.

URL: http://www.law.indiana.edu:/v-lib/index.html

Search Engines

LawCrawler

URL: http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/

Lawrunner —USA Index—Internet Legal Research Group.

URL: http://www.ilrg.com/gov.html

Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research —Links to search tools at legal indexes across the United States. Hypertext links to the individual sites provide access to additional search options available at those sites.

URL: http://gsulaw.gsu.edu/metaindex/

General

AltaVista

 URL: http://www.altavista.com/

Google

             URL: http://www.google.com/

Search.com Advanced-Web Pages (CNET) 

URL: http://www.search.com/search?channel=1&cat=118

Attorneys

FindLaw-Find a Lawyer (From West Legal Directory) —click on Lawyer Search on Find Law home page.

         URL: http://lawyers.findlaw.com/

Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator

URL: http://www.martindale.com/

Legal News

JURIST: Legal News and Research —Provides real-time academically-reported and filtered legal news, original academic commentary on current legal issues, and academic legal research information useful to lawyers, law professors, policymakers and interested citizens. Led by Bernard J. Hibbitts, Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

URL: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/

Liibulletin —Mailing list for e-mail bulletins from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. Subscribers receive e-mail bulletins containing summaries of all decisions of the United States Supreme Court shortly after they have been handed down, along with instructions on how to access those decisions in full text or retrieve them by e-mail. Subscription information is provided.

URL: http://www.law.cornell.edu/focus/bulletins.html

Organization/Association Home Pages

Council of State Governments —Links to CSG member state home pages found under States link at top.

URL: http://www.csg.org/CSG/States/state+pages/default.htm

National Center for State Courts —Many links to court related information including the “Court Web Sites” section.

URL: http://www.ncsconline.org/

National Conference of State Legislatures —Internet sites, policy issues, federal-state relations, and current events of interest to those that follow or help formulate legislation.

URL: http://www.ncsl.org/

Local

International City/County Management Association —The professional and educational association for appointed managers and administrators in local governments throughout the world.

URL: http://www.icma.org/

International Municipal Lawyers Association —The International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA, formerly the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers—NIMLO) is a nonprofit professional organization that has provided services and programs to local government lawyers since 1935. IMLA is the oldest and largest association of attorneys who represent local governments.

URL: http://www.imla.org/

National Association of Counties —National organization representing county governments in the United States, providing legislative, research, technical and public affairs assistance to its members.

URL: http://www.naco.org/

National League of Cities —National organization serving municipal governments. Founded in 1924 as the American Municipal Association by ten state municipal leagues, today its direct members include 49 state municipal leagues and 1,500 communities of all sizes. Through the membership of the state municipal leagues, NLC represents more than 18,000 municipalities.

URL: http://www.nlc.org/

United States Conference of Mayors —The United States Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities withpopulations of 30,000 or more.

URL: http://www.usmayors.org/uscm