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Useful Websites

Government, Law and Politics

  • American Fact Finder — portal by the U.S. Census Bureau for population, housing, economic, and geographic data
  • American Law Sources Online — Mexico, Canada and the Americas
  • beSpacific — accurate, focused law and technology reviews. Award-winning news aggregator and feed source on topics ranging from e-commerce to intellectual property, digital rights to ID theft, the Patriot Act and more
  • Center for Public Integrity — govt. watchdogs dedicated to investigative journalism on significant issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable
  • Congress.gov — formerly THOMAS. Browse or search for bills, public laws, the Congressional Record, committee reports, presidential nominations, treaties, roll call votes and more
  • Congress.org — get info on federal, state, and local officials, as well as issue guides and voting records
  • Congressional Research Service Reports — hosted by UNT Libraries, strives to give searchable access to full-text CRS reports from 1990 to present
  • CrimeSolutions.gov — selective clearinghouse of evaluative info on 150 programs in criminal justice, crime victim services and juvenile justice. By the NIJ, National Institute of Justice
  • C-SPAN — video archive of U.S. congressional sessions & hearings dating from 1987 to present. Indexed and searchable by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, committees, categories, policy groups, keywords & location
  • CyberCemetery — provides permanent public access to Web sites of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions
  • Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
  • Europa: Gateway to the European Union
  • FCSM – Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology — Formerly FedStats. Gateway to statistics from hundreds of U.S. federal gov. agencies
  • Federal Register — The Daily Journal of the U.S. Government. Contains rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive orders and other Presidential documents
  • FindLaw — by Thomson Reuters
  • FormSwift — create, edit and electronically sign legal documents for free: personal legal forms, small business legal forms, real estate legal forms and tax forms
  • Government Documents — McDermott Library’s guide to national and state government resources
  • GovInfo — by the GPO. Free access to legislative histories, congressional hearings, presidential documents, House and Senate calendars, US Codes, the Federal Register and more
  • Guide to Law Online — branches of government, constitutions and legal sources for U.S. and international points of origin. By the Library of Congress (LoC)
  • Internal Revenue Service (IRS.gov) — online tax forms and publications, tools and more
  • Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. – Legislative Sourcebook —  research guides and explanations, and resources lists and links, on legislative histories, Congressional codes and statutes,  federal regulations and more
  • Lawyers.com — search or browse lawyers by name, practice, or location; understand legal issues; find legal help and resources; and more
  • Legal Information Institute (LII) — by the Cornell University Law School
  • MetaLib.gpo.gov [federated government search engine] — by the GPO. Searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online
  • Migration Policy Institute — independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide
  • Municipal Codes Online — by American Legal Publishing Corporation
  • Municipal Codes Library — by Municode. Access city/county codes of ordinances from across the country
  • National Governors Association — ultimate resource for info on U.S. governors
  • Opensecrets.org — your guide to money in U.S. politics
  • OYEZ: U.S. Supreme Court Portal — a multimedia archive devoted to making the U.S. Supreme Court accessible to everyone. Search and listen to recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments dating from 1955 onward
  • Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) — allows users to obtain case and docket information from Federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts, and the PACER Case Locator via the Internet
  • PublicLegal — by the Internet Legal Research Group (ILRG). A categorized index of thousands of sites from all over the world for legal forms, downloadable files, sources on law and the legal profession and more
  • Recalls.gov — covering automobiles, boats, food, medicine, toys, cosmetics, environmental products & various consumer products
  • Stateline — news and info on the policies and politics of the states. By the Pew Charitable Trusts
  • Statistical Abstracts of the United States — by the U.S. Census Bureau. Coverage from 1878 to 2012. UTD users may access more recent editions through the library catalog
  • Supreme Court — access recent opinions, reports, oral arguments, case documents and more of the U.S. Supreme Court
  • Tax Statistics — produced by the Statistics of Income Division and other areas of the IRS
  • Texas Judicial Branch — the official website of the Texas Courts. A great source for keeping up with new legislation directly impacting the Texas court system, judges, clerks and other judicial actors
  • Texas Law Help — guide to free and low-cost legal aid, assistance & services in Texas
  • United Nations: Audiovisual Library of International Law — view film footage, images & audio relating to the negotiation and adoption of legal instruments pertaining to criminal law, disarmament, human rights, environmental law, treaties & more
  • USA.gov — the U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal – for federal, state and local government info. Your one-stop official search portal for U.S. government info
  • Voting, Election Information & Polls
  • World Policy Institute — striving for informed, open education and debate of national and international policy

Constitutions