American Law Sources On-line (ALSO) is a gateway service maintained by LawSource Inc. which aims to provide a comprehensive collection of links to free online sources of US and Canadian law. In addition to US federal and state law materials, there are links to sources of commentary and practice aids. Selecting “Federal Government” on the home page reveals a search screen that links to a number of sources for Supreme Court cases back to 1790. There are links to outlines of the US and Canadian legal systems.

Congress.gov, hosted and managed by the Library of Congress, is the official web site for US federal legislative information. This includes bill records 1973 onwards and bill texts 1993 onwards. The start date for much other content, including public and private laws, committee reports and treaty documents, is 1995. The Congressional Record is available from 1989-90 onwards.

The Legal Information Institute (LII) based at Cornell Law School provides links to the US Code (with update feature) and Constitution, federal and state law, federal court opinions, and Supreme Court opinions (including all SC opinions 1990 onwards and an archive of historic decisions). The site also incorporates Wex, LII’s collaboratively-edited legal dictionary and encyclopedia of legal terms and topics.

Emory Law (the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia) produces this guide to freely available internet-based legal resources. It provides briefly annotated links to US federal and state primary sources, foreign law and international sources, and secondary sources such as dictionaries, law reviews and legal news.

The Federal Register is “the daily journal of the United States Government”, the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules and notices of US federal agencies and organisations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. Content in this unofficial online version is from 1994 (vol 59) onwards.

This section of the FindLaw site contains resources and links for both federal and state laws of the US. Coverage includes constitutions, statutes, cases and legal news, plus historical documents and background information on the US courts and government. Supreme Court decisions from 1893 onwards can be browsed by year or United States Reports volume number, and are searchable by citation, case name or full text, with hypertext links within cases to other cited cases. Also included are Opinion Summaries from September 2000 onwards, searchable by court and legal topic.

Google Scholar is a specialised web search engine which enables users to search for scholarly literature. In November 2009 coverage was extended to include full text legal opinions from US federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts. To access this feature select the Case Law option on the home page.

Govinfo is a service of the US Government Printing Office (GPO) which provides free public access to official Federal Government publications. It superseded the GPO’s FDsys site, which was retired in December 2018. Content includes the annual Code of Federal Regulations (1996 onwards), Congressional Bills (1993-1994 onwards), Congressional Documents (1975-1976 onwards – including Senate Treaty Documents from 1995-1996 onwards), the Federal Register (1936 onwards), Public and Private Laws (1995-1996 onwards), and the United States Code (1994 onwards). The site features advanced search and browsing capabilities.

A research guide on the GlobaLex web site, outlining the structure of the federal legal system including references to publicly accessible web-based sources, prepared by Gretchen Feltes, Faculty Services/Reference Librarian at New York University School of Law Library. Originally on the LLRX.com site, the guide was published on GlobaLex in 2005 and has since been updated several times.

This gateway site published by the legal media and technology company Justia provides free access to federal and state law materials including US Supreme Court cases 1759 onwards, federal appellate cases 1950 onwards and district court opinions 2004 onwards. It also includes links to the US Code and Constitution, the Code of Federal Regulations and to state constitutions, codes, legislation and web resources.

An annotated compendium of internet sources on the US aimed at legal researchers and arranged under the following headings: Constitution, Executive, Judicial, Legislative, States, Legal Guides and General Sources. Emphasis is on sites offering the full text of laws, regulations and court decisions, along with commentary from lawyers.

The OpenJurist project aims to provide free access to the case law of the US Supreme Court 1790 onwards as published in United States Reports, and of lower federal courts 1880 onwards as published in Federal Reporter. Coverage is not yet complete. In Federal Reporter 1st series cases it is advisable to view the original text as scanned from the printed volumes, since the machine-read version (accessible by selecting “Case text” at the head of each report) is not always reliable. Other site content includes the United States Code and a directory of US courts.

The Public Library of Law (PLoL) is a free service provided by Fastcase, a subscription provider of US online legal information. The site provides access to federal and state law including cases from the US Supreme Court 1754 onwards, federal circuit courts 1950 onwards, and state supreme and appeals courts 1997 onwards. Links to the US Code and to statutes, constitutions and court rules for all 50 states and to regulations and administrative codes from selected states are also included. Registration is required to access the full text of these materials.

The SLGN directory has links to over 11,000 official US state, county and city government web sites. There are drop-down menus to view pages by state, topic or local government.

The official site of the US Supreme Court has general information about the Court, its current Rules, recent decisions and opinions for the 2004 term onwards. The Opinions section of the site also has the full text of the bound volumes of United States Reports for the 1991 term and subsequent years (vol 502 onwards). There is also a Case Citation Finder.

The United States Code is a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States, which is prepared and published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (OLRC), an independent office within the US House of Representatives. The US Code is readily accessible from many web sites, but the OLRC’s own site has the most up to date online version of the current edition, together with all editions back to 1994 and various tables, tools, FAQs and guidance.

The official web site of the US federal judiciary, which has general information on the federal courts and judiciary, and links to the sites of the Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals, District Courts and Bankruptcy Courts.

The House of Representatives web site contains information about current House membership and activities, including the House Rules, legislative schedules, proceedings, votes and committee meetings. There are links as appropriate to other sites, including Congress.gov for enacted legislation and the official Congressional Record (of proceedings and debates).

The United States Senate site includes information on current and past senators and on the membership and legislative work of its committees. The “Legislation & Records” section provides information on the different types of legislation and on the “active legislation” which is currently before Congress.

USA.gov is the United States Government’s official web portal to all online government information and services. There are links to federal, state, local and tribal government sites. The site’s primary arrangement is by topic, and there is an A-Z agency index in the “Government Agencies and Elected Officials” section.

Wex is a collaboratively-edited legal dictionary and encyclopedia, hosted by the Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell Law School.