Meet CRS’s Law Librarians at the Spring Federal Law Update

March 27, 2019 LSB10280




Legal Sidebari

Meet CRS’s Law Librarians at the Spring
Federal Law Update
March 27, 2019
Research is the foundation of legal and legislative analysis. The Law Librarians in Research and Library
Services (RLS) of the American Law Division (ALD) work directly with Members of Congress,
committees, and congressional staff to locate, obtain, and compile primary and secondary federal and
state legal materials.
Members and staff are welcome to meet with ALD Law Librarians the first week of ALD’s spring Federal
Law Update (FLU), a series of CRS legal seminars that will be held the first two weeks of April 2019.
Law Librarians will be available at the FLU on April 2-4, 2019 to discuss Congress.gov and ways in
which the Law Librarians can assist with legal research questions that arise during the legislative process.
This year, the spring FLU seminars will be held April 2-4 and 9-11 in the Montpelier Room of the
James Madison Memorial Building in the Library of Congress. To register, click here.
The ALD Law Librarians specialize in finding and retrieving legal information. Select examples of
services the Law Librarians regularly provide are as follows:
Federal Statutory Law and Legislative Materials
 Researching statutes as originally enacted and as codified in the United States Code
(U.S.C.), as well as proposed legislation and amendments thereto.
 Compiling comprehensive and selected legislative histories.
 Retrieving congressional publications, such as committee hearings, reports, and prints.
 Assembling roll call vote reports by bill, statute, or topic.
Federal Administrative Law
 Researching agency notices, proposed and final rules, and regulations as published in the
Federal Register and as codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.).
 Compiling comprehensive and selected regulatory histories.
 Locating published presidential documents (e.g., executive orders, proclamations, and
signing statements).
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
LSB10280
CRS Legal Sidebar

Prepared for Members and
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Congressional Research Service
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 Obtaining published administrative agency decisions and guidance.
Federal Case Law
 Researching cases that interpret particular U.S.C. or C.F.R. provisions.
 Identifying cases that address a particular legal issue or involve a specified party.
 Compiling the appellate history of a case or a list of other cases citing it through tools
like Shepard’s Citations.
 Obtaining briefs submitted in U.S. Supreme Court cases.
 Retrieving information concerning the status and court filings for a case (i.e., PACER
dockets and court records).
State Law
 Identifying state statutes on a particular topic or compiling comparative examples from
multiple states.
 Researching state administrative codes and other published state administrative agency
materials.
 Searching for cases in state courts on a particular issue or with a specified party.
Secondary Sources
 Identifying CRS and other government agency reports, legal treatises, and law
review/law journal articles that summarize, explain, or analyze particular legal issues.
 Providing news articles and other current awareness publications on legal and legislative
developments.
To place a research request with the ALD Law Librarians, please call 7-6006.

Author Information

Andrew M. Winston
Theresa A. Reiss
Acting Section Head ALD Section
Law Librarian







Congressional Research Service
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Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However,
as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
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