LAW A Guide to Legal Materials in the Government Documents Collection at Minneapolis Public Library Virginia Hasenstein, Minneapolis Public Library All three branches of the federal government produce law. The Legislative branch (Congress) produces statutory law; the Executive branch produces administrative law, or rules and regulations; and the Judiciary produces case law, which often interprets statutory law. The State of Minnesota also has statutory, administrative and case law. With the exception of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) does not have case law. To research case law, you will need to go to a law library, for example, the Hennepin County Law Library at the Hennepin County Government Center or the University of Minnesota Law School Library. UNITED STATES Legislative Bills: Bills are proposed legislation which may be introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate and are the first step in the long process of making statutory law. They are numbered sequentially within each two-year session of Congress. Most bills never become law. MPL has bills on microfiche back to the 98th Congress (1984). The set of microfiche is accompanied by a paper finding list which is arranged by bill number. LOCATION: MICROFORM Y 1.4/ GREF Ask at Reference Desk for finding list Bills are also available from the 103rd Congress forward on the Internet through GPO Access (Government Printing Office) or THOMAS (Library of Congress site) or one of more than 20 GPO gateway sites: http://www.access.gpo.gov/ http://thomas.loc.gov/ http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu:80/gpo/ http://www.gpo.ucop.edu/ Also via telnet swais.access.gpo.gov (Log in as guest) Congressional Index: This weekly looseleaf publication from Commerce Clearing House tracks current legislation from initial introduction to final disposition in two volumes, one for the House and one for the Senate. It includes subject indexes, tables showing the status of bills and records of congressional actions and presidential vetoes. It is also useful for finding bill numbers. LOCATION: J69.C6 1993/94-1995/96 GRD (1985/86-1991/92 Stacks) Status of current bills can also be tracked on the Internet at the sites listed above for bills. Slip Laws: After a bill has moved through both houses of Congress and been signed by the President, its first official form of publication is as a slip law, that is, a separately published law in unbound, single-sheet or pamphlet form. A slip law is designated by a public law number indicating, first, the Congress in which it was enacted and, second, the chronological sequence of enactment within a given Congress, e.g. Public Law 104-28. LOCATION: unnumbered GRD Also on the Internet through GPO Access United States Statutes at Large: This is the official, permanent, bound session-law publication for federal law. All of the laws enacted by Congress in each session are chronologically arranged with an index by subject matter. MPL has a complete set of the Statutes at Large back to 1789, as does the Hennepin County Law Library. LOCATION: various numbering (AE 2.111:, GS 4.111:, S 7.9:) GRO United States Code (USC): Federal laws that are currently in force are arranged in subject or topical order in the USC. Divided into 50 titles, or subject areas, and subdivided into chapters and sections, it is reissued every six years with annual, cumulative, bound supplements. Indexes include "Acts Cited by Popular Name" (either short titles assigned by Congress or names by which they are popularly known). LOCATION: Y 1.2/5: GRO Also on the Internet through GPO Access United States Code Annotated (USCA): USCA is a privately published (West Publishing) version of the U.S. Code with references to other sources such as the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and judicial opinions. It is more current than the USC, with annual pocket-part updates and a monthly pamphlet service. It is also more extensively indexed and contains a useful Popular Name table in the last volume of the index. LOCATION: unnumbered GRO U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN): Another West publication, this monthly pamphlet service publishes the full text of public laws as they are enacted. Quicker than slip laws, USCCAN also includes legislative histories, executive orders and proclamations, federal regulations, court rules and summaries of pending legislation. Each pamphlet has a cumulative index and tables to locate Code sections affected by recent legislation. The service also includes hard-bound annual volumes which reprint public laws in one section and legislative histories in the other. LOCATION: unnumbered pamphlets GRD annuals KF48.U5 GRO or Stacks Executive When Congress passes a law, it delegates the authority to implement and regulate the law to the executive branch of government and its administrative agencies. The agencies create detailed rules, which give specific content to statutory intent and provide procedures for the implementation and enforcement of the law. Federal Register: Proposed rules and regulations appear first in the Federal Register, which is published Monday-Friday except federal holidays. Final rules and presidential documents (e.g. proclamations, executive orders) are also published here. Each issue includes finding aids such as an index of CFR parts affected for the current issue and the previous month. LOCATION: AE 2.106: GRD (current issues) (AE 2.106: 1985- ; GS 4.107: 1950-84; AE 2.7: 1936-49 Stacks) Also available 1994-present on the Internet through GPO Access and its gateways at addresses shown above for bills. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): After rules become final, they are codified (that is, arranged by subject) and incorporated into the annually revised Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The CFR is divided into 50 titles, which are roughly analogous to the titles in the U.S. Code, and consists of about 200 volumes. Titles are divided into chapters, each for a particular agency. Chapters are divided into parts, which, in turn, are divided into sections, the basic unit of the CFR and a simple presentation of a single proposition. LOCATION: AE 2.106/3: GRO (current edition) (AE 2.106/3: 1984- ; GS 4.108: 1969-84; AE 2.9: 1938-47; AE 2.8: 1939 Stacks) List of Sections Affected (LSA): The LSA helps users of the CFR find amendments published in the Federal Register since the last revision of that title of the CFR. The LSA is published monthly and cumulates. Entries for rules are arranged numerically by CFR title, chapter, part and section and denote the change made. The LSA also contains finding aids, such as a Checklist of Current CFR Volumes and a Table of Federal Register Issue Pages and Dates. LOCATION: AE 2.106/2: GRD (current) (AE 2.106/2: 1986- ; AE 2.106/2-2: 1973-85; GS 4.108:list/1949-72 Stacks) The Federal Register: What It Is and How to Use It: A Guide for the User of the Federal Register-Code of Federal Regulations System: The Office of the Federal Register of the National Archives and Records Administration has published this concise and useful guide to the Federal Register System, which will give you more detail about using these sources. LOCATION: AE 2.108:F 31/2 GRD Federal Register Index: The Office of the Federal Register publishes a monthly index to the Federal Register. The index cumulates for previous months in that year, and the January-December index is also the annual index. Each issue of the Federal Register Index includes a table showing what page numbers appear in each daily issue of the Federal Register so far that year. LOCATION: AE 2.106:vol./nos./month/year/INDEX GRD CIS Federal Register Index: This commercially published index from Congressional Information Service has more extensive indexing by subject and name and more finding aids (e.g. a table by CFR section numbers) than the government-published index. It is published weekly with monthly, then semi-annual, cumulations. LOCATION: KF70.A2 Suppl. year GRD CFR Index and Finding Aids: The official government-published index to the CFR provides a broad subject/agency index to the "Part" level and a Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules, which indicates if rules have been promulgated pursuant to specific legislation. LOCATION: AE 2.106/3-2: year GRO Index to the Code of Federal Regulations: This annual commercial publication from Congressional Information Service provides more specific and detailed indexing by subject and keyword than the government-published version. LOCATION: KF70.A34I46 year vol. 1-4 GRO "Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations": Published semi-annually in the Federal Register (traditionally in April and September but check the index under Regulatory Information Service Center for dates), the Unified Agenda lists expected regulatory activities planned for the next twelve months by each agency. LOCATION: AE 2.106: specific date of Federal Register Also available on the Internet through GPO Access Judicial The U.S. legal system is basically a combination of case law and statutory law. Case law is the law as decided by previous court cases. Except for decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and of a few specialized courts, such as the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Tax Court, Minneapolis Public Library does not have case law, that is court decisions and opinions; nor do we have the digests and reporters needed to access them. To research case law, one may use a library at a law school (e.g. the University of Minnesota) or a county law library (e.g. Hennepin County Law Library). Some case law is available on the Internet. The following addresses are examples: http://www.law.vill.edu/ http://www.law.cornell.edu/ http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/ Law on the Net KF242.A1L39 1996 HROPN lists many other Internet sites for legal information. U.S. Supreme Court Slip Opinions: Supreme Court decisions are first issued individually as slip opinions within three days of the decision. These are filed alphabetically by case name in the Government Documents workroom and are discarded when the Official Reports are received. LOCATION: JU 6.8/B: GREF Official Reports of the Supreme Court: These are preliminary prints in softbound compilations of the Supreme Court decisions. They supersede the Slip Opinions and are in turn superseded by United States Reports. LOCATION: JU 6.8/A: GREF (Stacks) United States Reports: This final bound edition of the Supreme Court decisions is issued annually (with several years' lag time) and contains the official text of all opinions of the Supreme Court. Also included are tables of cases reported and cases and statutes cited and a subject index. This is the government-published edition; commercially published versions may be available at law libraries. LOCATION: JU 6.8: GREF (Vol. 1-247 [1790-1917] are on microfiche in Stacks; Vol. 232 [1913] to current are in paper, also in Stacks) To access a particular case, you will need a citation showing the volume and page number of the U.S. Reports. The following finding tools will help but are not comprehensive: Bureau of National Affairs U.S. Law Week: This weekly looseleaf service provides full text of Supreme Court decisions in a timely fashion. It includes a topical index, a table of cases, a docket number table, and a proceedings section. LOCATION: KF75.U5 1990 - present GRD Commerce Clearing House U.S. Supreme Court Bulletin: Similar to U.S. Law Week. LOCATION: KF101.C64 1983-1990 GRD Guenther, Nancy Anderman United States Supreme Court Decisions: This bibliography provides a chronological listing of major Supreme Court decisions with citations to U.S. Reports up to 1980. It includes an index by case name. LOCATION: KF101.6.G83 1983 GRD Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court 2nd ed.: This encyclopedic guide, published by Congressional Quarterly, includes a summary of major decisions of the Court since 1789. LOCATION: KF8742.W567 1990 GRD The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation: The Table of Cases at the end of this volume acts as a case-name index to supreme court decisions through 1982. A 1990 supplement updates the table. LOCATION: Serial Set 1361 GRD MINNESOTA Like federal law, law at the state level is also issued by the three branches of government--Legislative (statutory law), Executive (rules, or administrative law) and Judiciary (case law). Minneapolis Public Library has only the Minnesota statutes and rules; for laws from other states and for case law, you will need to go to a law library. Martindale-Hubbell Law Digest in the History Department at MPL summarizes major laws from all 50 states (unnumbered HRDOPN). Legislative Bills: Full text of current Minnesota House and Senate bills is now available on the Internet at the Minnesota State Legislature's World Wide Web site: http://www.leg.state.mn.us For paper copies of current bills, you may call the Chief Clerk's Office at the Minnesota House (612)296- 2314. Summaries of key bills appear in Session Weekly, published each week during the legislative session by the Minnesota House of Representatives. Ask at Government Documents reference desk. Session laws: These are chronologically arranged laws enacted during a particular legislative session. The first paper edition received by MPL is Minnesota Session Law Service, commercially published by West Publishing. These unofficial paperbound pamphlets are uncataloged and disposed of when the official hardbound version, Laws of Minnesota, is received, usually several months after the legislative session ends. Laws of Minnesota is the state counterpart to U.S. Statutes at Large. All public and private laws are published in chronological order with interlining and underlining to show deletions and amendments to existing law. There are a subject index and tables that show where a law will appear in the statutes. MPL has Minnesota laws from 1849 to the present. LOCATION: KFM5425.A3 GRD (current year) Also on the Internet at http://www.leg.state.mn.us (KFM5425.A3 1857-1995; Min T326 1849-1857 Stacks) Minnesota Statutes: This is the codified version of the general and permanent Minnesota laws in force. Similar to the U.S. Code at the federal level, Minnesota Statutes rearranges the laws in subject/topical order to facilitate access. It incorporates amendments, deletes repealed laws, and makes only the minor changes in the text of the laws necessary for their incorporation in subject arrangement. It also provides a brief history indicating the original legislation enacting the statute and any subsequent changes to it. Volume 1 includes text of several historical documents such as the constitutions of Minnesota and the United States and the Northwest Ordinance. Volume 15 is Court Rules of Minnesota. Minnesota Statutes is published every even- numbered year with annual updates in the form of pocket-part inserts. MPL has earlier editions back to 1865. LOCATION: KFM5430 year .A2 GRD (current edition) Also on the Internet at http://www.leg.state.mn.us (KFM5430 1976- .A2; Min L42 1865-1975 Stacks) Minnesota Statutes Annotated: Published by West Publishing, this version of the state Statutes has the same arrangement and text as the official one but adds editorial enhancements, such as references to judicial and administrative decisions and other interpretations, as well as more extensive indexing and histories. It is supplemented by pocket parts and pamphlets. LOCATION: unnumbered GRO Executive State Register: As at the federal level, state statutes authorize state agencies to make rules to implement and enforce state statutes. The weekly State Register is the state counterpart to the Federal Register and is the official source of all state agency rulemaking. Published every Monday, the State Register contains the agencies' announcements of proposed and adopted rules, notices of hearings, governor's executive orders, summaries of appellate court decisions, and advance notice of cases to be heard by the state Supreme Court. Each issue contains a table, "Minnesota Rules: Amendments and Additions," which lists the affected rule number under the agency name. The lists are cumulated quarterly, semi-annually and annually in issue number 26, 39 and 52. An annual subject matter index to rules, notices involved in the rulemaking process, executive orders, commissioners' orders and revenue notices appears in issue 52, which is the last issue of June. LOCATION: GRD (current) (1990-95 Workroom; 1976-1990 Stacks) Minnesota Rules: Previously known as Minnesota Code of Agency Rules or MCAR, Minnesota Rules has been published every odd-numbered year, with pocket-part supplements, since 1983. Analogous to the Code of Federal Regulations, Minnesota Rules is a multi-volume compilation or codification of current rules in force from approximately 70 state agencies. The rules are grouped by agency according to a numerical scheme that assigns a four-digit number to each agency. Within the agency chapter, rules are arranged in topical order. Volume 1 includes a "User's Guide"; volume 13 contains a subject index and tables of rules issued under statutory authority. Updating Minnesota Rules requires the use of the Minnesota Rules Sections Affected Table in the State Register. LOCATION: KFM5435.5.M56 GRD (current) (KFM5435.5.M56 1982-1993 Stacks) Judicial Minneapolis Public Library does not have Minnesota case law, that is, judicial decisions and opinions of state courts. To research state judicial law, you will need to use one of the county or law school law libraries, for example, the University of Minnesota Law School Library or Hennepin County Law Library. The county law libraries are set up for the use of county and court personnel and are open to the general public. They are generally staffed by law librarians who are trained to help in the use of legal materials. Law school libraries primarily serve the students, staff and faculty of the law school but are also open to the public. Finance and Commerce: This daily, privately owned newspaper publishes official legal notices such as bankruptcies, Minneapolis City Council official proceedings and Minneapolis Ordinances amended. The Weekly Appellate Courts Edition publishes slip opinions of the Minnesota Supreme Court and the Minnesota Court of Appeals. LOCATION: newspaper bay in the History Department Also on the Internet at http://www.finance-commerce.com MINNEAPOLIS Minneapolis Code of Ordinances: This two-volume set contains the charter and ordinances, that is, the laws, of Minneapolis. Ordinances have the force of law within the municipality. MPL does not have ordinances for other municipalities; check with the county law library of the county where the municipality is located. Although MPL's copies of the Minneapolis ordinances are updated from time to time, it is always wise to check with the Minneapolis City Clerk for the most current information. LOCATION: KFX1881.A6 1991 Vol. 1 and 2 GRD (also HREF) Also on the Internet at- http://www.ci.mpls.mn.us/ http://www.municode.com/folio.pgi/11490.NFO? Prepared by Virginia Hasenstein, Minneapolis Public Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, NM 55401