I. Federal
A.
Constitutional Materials
The
starting point for research in this field is the Constitution of the
United States. There are a number of handy versions available on
the Web:
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B. Legislative Materials
- The handiest site for legislative
research is THOMAS, the
legislative site maintained by the Library of Congress. It has
all current bills as well as those from the last session of
Congress, the Congressional Record, extremely useful indices
and search engines, links to all branches and agencies of the
federal government, and good state and local government links, as
well. In particular, see the excellent "United
States Legislative Branch" page.
- West Publishing has added a "Federal
Legislative History tab on westlaw.com®, which contains entry points
to all Westlaw databases on legislative history of United States
Public Laws in a single location." Details are
here.
- See also Congressional
Universe, which claims to provide "[t]he world's most
comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information from
Congressional Information Service, Inc." It is good.
- "The American
Congress" is also a terrific resource - an undergraduate poli sci
text that presents a comprehensive and clear picture of its subject
- A lot of useful information can be
found at the home pages of the U.S.
Senate and the U.S. House of
Representatives, including information about committee
membership, jurisdiction, and hearings, floor activity, and the
like. Also, the semi-official newspaper of Capitol Hill, Roll
Call, is a good place to keep up with current Hill activity
and election news, and it has a
nifty ZIP+4 search engine to identify members of Congress.
- A humorous and useful site: YourCongress.com:
headlines, what's happening in Congress, "Cast of
Characters," tracking your representatives' doings, deciphering
appropriations bills, the daily prayer in the House and the Senate -
quirky, yes, but good.
Legislative Process:
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C.
Agency Materials
Agencies are an
excellent source of information about legislation in their areas of
responsibility. Some agencies regularly post updated summaries of
recent legislation, as well as their own interpretations, legislative
agendas, and the like. Of course, agencies are hardly
disinterested observers on these subjects, so their opinions should be
taken with a grain of salt.
The Library of Congress' page
of federal government web sites has a good
list of federal agencies' home pages. See also
Villanova's Federal
Web Locator. Federal regulations are published in the
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), a searchable
version of which is maintained by NARA. Changes to the CFR
almost always require publication in the Federal
Register, which is searchable on the NARA site. Today's
Federal Register, in a handy HTML format, is posted every day at Purdue
University's site. Also at the NARA site: The
United States Government Manual, which provides a very useful
overview of all three branches, but most especially the agencies.
Additional
excellent leads:
- Track down federal
government sources through The Washington Post's "Federal
Internet Guide."
- Another good source: GovBot,
a comprehensive database of government and military home pages.
- If you can't find what you
are looking for on my page, try the "Federal
Law and Government Information" page on the link-rich SMU
Law Library site.
- See also The Washington
Post's "Federal
Page" (changes daily).
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II.
State Materials
A.
General
Most states have placed at least a few
legislative resources onto their web pages. Your best bet is to
start with the state government web page for your state, which you can
access through the Library
of Congress' state links page. This page contains links to
Yahoo!'s state government page, the National Conference of State
Legislatures, and the Council of State Governments, as well as direct
links to state government web sites. See also
Villanova's State
Web Locator. The web site for the National
Conference of State Legislatures deserves special mention. It
contains links to all on-line state legislatures and codes, as well as
reports on a variety of substantive issues of at least potential concern
to state legislatures.
An individual ("Scruffy" -- go
figure) home page contains links to full-text
state constitutions and statutes for 50 states and Guam
(unfortunately, there's nothing there for budget-challenged District of
Columbia).
A few of these states (including Texas -
see below), have published descriptions of legislative process in their
states.
Administrative codes and state
registers: go to the National Association of Secretaries of State's listing
of the states' administrative codes and state registers. In
addition to the regulatory material, there are links to state
secretaries of states' offices, and those pages often have good links to
legislative compilations, legislative histories (if available), bill
tracking services, and the like.
Villanova has good indexes of home pages
for state courts and state
agencies.
Finally, the SMU law
library has a good collection of state-law links on its "State
Law and Information" page.
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B.
Texas
The State of Texas has
really been one of the leaders in putting a wealth of legislative and
other government-related materials on the Web. For researchers, it
is a virtual treasure trove. And for all citizens, it is an
exciting experiment in bringing the government to the people.
Start with the main
web page for the State of Texas. From here, there are links to
state agencies;
some agencies are much better than others about keeping their pages
updated with current legislative material, agency interpretations and
regulations, and the like.
The state Senate
and House of Representatives
both have excellent home pages that include committee dockets and
agendas. The legislature also has maintains an excellent page -- Texas
Legislature Online -- that is updated daily when the legislature is
in session. The
House maintains a list of all pending bills (including resolutions
of every type [e.g., joint, concurrent, and simple] and memorial
and congratulatory motions) in both the House and the Senate are
searchable at a site that provides links to all versions of the bills
(introduced, house committee printing, engrossed, senate committee
printing, and enrolled), companion bills, summaries of actions taken,
and full histories. Texas Legislature Online maintains a similar
database for the last three legislatures (the 73rd, 74th, and 75th).
See also the web site for the Texas
Legislative Council, especially its "Guide
to Texas legislative Information" and
Texas Legislative Council Drafting Manual.
Texas
statutes may be searched and downloaded from this government site.
The most useful statute of all (for purposes of a course that focuses on
statutory interpretation) is the Code
Construction Act in the Texas Government Code.
The House has posted a very
brief essay on legislative process. A more detailed, 11-page
summary of state legislative procedure is available on-line: The
Legislative Process in Texas. See also this interesting
article from the Fort-Worth Star Telegram on Public Strategies, Inc.
The Texas
Administrative Code is also available on the Web. The
Administrative Code is updated through rule-making procedures that
require publication in the Texas
Register, which is available in both HTML and *.pdf (Adobe Acrobat)
formats.
A searchable
version of the Texas Constitution is now available on-line.
Texas Supreme Court
opinions are available here.
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III. Drafting
A. Legislative Drafting Manuals
B.
Other
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IV.
Election Law
Stanford Law School,
Robert Crown Library:
Campaign Finance Materials
Jurist's Election
Law: campaign finance, broadcast
rules, Electoral College, great links
Brookings
Institution Campaign Finance Reform page
MyPollingPlace.com
This page is the
sole responsibility of Tom Mayo, not Southern
Methodist University.
Please 
your
comments.
Last
updated:
31 October 2004
