Library Guides: U.S. Laws and Regulations: U.S. Court Opinions and Interpretations

Tips to Discover Court Opinions

When it comes to finding interpretation of the many laws and regulations, one of the key stategies it to search for law reviews. Law reviews are articles written by lawyers, law professors, law students, etc and provide indepth analysis of laws, court opinions, regulations, etc. You can also use the law reviews to discover court cases dealing with a particular law or regulation you are interested in. The databases below will assist you in discovering law reviews.

Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to international, national, local newspapers, and wire services, as well as radio and television transcripts. Database also includes business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Also includes laws from the U.S., all 50 states, and law reviews. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pai.
Nexis Uni allows users to set up personal accounts to personalize your research experience. Nexis Uni has replaced LexiNexis Academic. [dates vary]
LegalTrac This link opens in a new window
Indexes major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals, international legal journals. (Legal Trac) [1980 - present]
Also indexes law-related articles from hundreds of business and general interest titles.
Hein Online This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive legal research tool including access to the pdf full-text of complete runs of many legal journals, US statutes, codes, and congressional and executive documents, Supreme Court Library, state session laws and state statutes, the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, and many historical and international legal resources. The database is continually adding resources and expanding existing resources. Courtesy of Berkeley Law Library.
Provides full text to the early issues of many legal journals and law reviews, the Federal Register (1936-six months ago), US Supreme Court Library (1754-present) and treaties and agreements.
ProQuest Supreme Court Insight This link opens in a new window
Complete collection of full opinions from U.S. Supreme Court argued cases, including decisions, dockets, oral arguments, joint appendices and amicus briefs. Covers 1975-2017 term (database currently being built, so not all dates are covered).
"Complete online collection of full opinions from Supreme Court argued cases, including per decision, dockets, oral arguments, joint appendices and amicus briefs. Content associated with each case is compiled on a dynamic page organized to facilitate understanding of the judicial process, and is also retrievable on a document by document basis. This collection covers 1975-2017 (database currently being built, so not all dates are covered). All content is expected to be added by the end of 2017."

Court Opinion Sources

Court opinions provide interpretation of the law and/or regulations. You can find the latest and historic opinions using the following databases and sites.

Many federal courts also publish their recent opinions on their websites.
CourtListener is a free database of legal opinions, provided by the Free Law Project.

Hein Online This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive legal research tool including access to the pdf full-text of complete runs of many legal journals, US statutes, codes, and congressional and executive documents, Supreme Court Library, state session laws and state statutes, the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, and many historical and international legal resources. The database is continually adding resources and expanding existing resources. Courtesy of Berkeley Law Library.
Provides full text to the early issues of many legal journals and law reviews, the Federal Register (1936-six months ago), US Supreme Court Library (1754-present) and treaties and agreements.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to international, national, local newspapers, and wire services, as well as radio and television transcripts. Database also includes business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Also includes laws from the U.S., all 50 states, and law reviews. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pai.
Nexis Uni allows users to set up personal accounts to personalize your research experience. Nexis Uni has replaced LexiNexis Academic. [dates vary]

Reading a Legal Citation

Have you ever been puzzled by weird looking citations such as:

410 U.S. 113
40 CFR §129.4
65 FR 741
16 USC §4246

No need to worry. These are legal citations and they are quite easy to read once you understand their logic and abbreviations. The abbreviation in the middle tells you the publication you need. The first number is the volume of the publication where the citation (law, regulation, opinon, etc) is published, and the second number is the page number where the citation appears. For instance, 410 U.S. 113 would be read as: "Volume 410 of the United States Reports, page 113." Sometimes the first number refers to a title/part number instead of a volume number and the second number refers to a section number instead of page number. The real tricky part is figuring out the abbreviation for the publication. Below are some of the more common abbreviations you may run into doing research. As you become more familiar with legal research, you will recognize the more common abbreviations. A list of the more common U.S. abbreviations can be found in this pdf file. For other legal citations (state, local and international), see Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations in the Doe Reference Collection.

U.S.-- United States Reports (Supreme Court opinions)
CFR -- Code of Federal Regulations (In this case, its [Title Number] CFR [Part/Section Number])
FR -- Federal Register
F -- Federal Reporter
F2d -- Federal Reporter, Second Series
USC -- U.S. Code (In this case, its [Title Number] USC [Section Number])
Stat -- U.S. Statutes at Large
Cal -- California Reporter

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U.S. Laws and Regulations: U.S. Court Opinions and Interpretations

Tips to Discover Court Opinions

Court Opinion Sources

Reading a Legal Citation