| . Politics
& Government
Links to Politics & Gov't
On-Line
. Researching
Supreme Court Cases
We had originally planned on running these
links as part of our on-going Special
Report: Terrorism and the War to End it, specifically, in a series
entitled The Constitution in Times of Crisis. The idea for the
series first came up when the administration proposed fairly extensive
changes in the laws on surveillance, detention, and other matters -- a
proposal which precipitated something of an apparent conflict between the
President and some members of the Congress, especially, as Chair of the
Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy. {Despite the conflict, of
course, some significant changes were subsequently enacted.} But
now, with the President's establishment of military tribunals -- with
neither the advice nor the consent of Congress -- the constitutionality of
his Executive Order is already being called into question. In
that light, then, we offer this up-dated reprise of some links which we
had first run a year ago, when we were still new and had only a fraction
of the readers we now enjoy. Back then, in the wake of the
Supreme Court decision which decided the presidential election, it seemed
current for other reasons. We have done a fair
bit of legal research over the years and, without a very expensive
subscription to WestLaw or a similar service, we think these are the best
sites you'll find for Researching Supreme Court Cases.
LII
Supreme Court Collection
This offering comes from Cornell's
Legal Information Institute [LII]. It is one of the most
comprehensive and easy-to-use resources on the web for researching
Supreme Court decisions. Given the size of the database it's
working from, the site is reasonably quick, too.
.
What's
contained in LII's Supreme Court Collection? Pending Cases,
including all cases scheduled for argument from the current date
forward and all cases scheduled for argument during the present
term ... Decisions from 1990 to the present, which you can
search in a variety of ways, including by the names of the 1st or 2nd
party to the action ... and, for critical documents in the
history of the U.S., Decisions before 1990, a collection of "over
600 of the court's most important decisions."
.
Most
of us stay pretty focused on the President and Congress. But the
Supreme Court is that vital third branch that the framers put in place
with the idea of checks and balances. Like a three-legged stool,
it is intended to contribute to stability on an otherwise inevitably
un-level playing field. LII is a great help in ferreting out the
critical work of this branch.
Rating: ****1/2 [4-1/2 stars]
. FindLaw:
Cases and Codes, Supreme Court Opinions
The FindLaw site is
one of the best legal resources on the web. So it should come as
no surprise that their database of Supreme Court decision goes back to
1893.
.
The opening page offers
Selected Cases, as well as Browsing, with search capabilities by
Citation, Party Name, or Full Text. There's also a Supreme Court
Opinion FAQ, as well as links to Supreme Court Resources, the US
Constitution, and FindLaw's Supreme Court Center, Supreme Court News,
and Message Boards where you can read or participate in discussions
about current cases.
.
There's no
question that FindLaw's Supreme Court Opinions, like every other part
of FindLaw's site, is worth the visit.
Rating: ****1/2 [4-1/2
stars]
. Oyez
Oyez Oyez
The Oyez site from Northwestern started out with
an aim that was revealed in its former sub-title, i.e., a
"Supreme Court Multimedia Database" -- a compendium of court
proceedings available through searchable text and audio files
of selected cases.
Unfortunately, we visted last year,
the audio files weren't available on-line.. Now, it seems the
promise of their arrival has been indefinitely postponed. But
they are available on CD as The Supreme Court's Greatest Hits.
Even lacking the audio files, however, the site is a solid resource
for the Court and its decisions. You can search cases by title,
citation, subject, and even date. You can find info about the
current justices, or search all of them by order of appointment or
alphabetically, or using the search tool. There is even a
virtual tour of the Court. ... Finally, the project promises an
interactive medium, particularly aimed at students and teachers, with
moderated discussions, and more. ...
.
If
and when the audio files become available, we'll be sure to return to
this site. That will definitely make it a 5-star site in our
opinion. But in the meantime, it is still worth a visit.
Rating:
**** [4 stars]
. Supreme
Court Case Research from Barclay Law Library at
Syracuse
This is a direct link to an Adobe Acrobat file from the
Law Library at Syracuse. We include it here because it can be an
invaluable resource for those interested in researching Supreme Court
cases.
Rating: ****1/2 [4-1/2 stars]
. Additional
Resources ...
Note: While some titles may seem repetitive, we
have only included sites which offer different types of resources,
e.g., annotations, specialized search features, or content not found
on other sites listed.
.
. About
Links to Politics & Gov't On-Line
The amount of info on the
web is enormous, as anyone who's ever tried to run a search can attest
to. To put it all in context, best estimates say that only a
fraction -- maybe 20 - 40 % of what's out there -- is actually making its
way to the search engines. Well, here at DownStreet,
we'd like to try to help. So each issue, we post a few links in
Politics & Gov't to sites that might interest you. Sometimes the
links will be related to one another ... sometimes we'll just
offer up a somewhat random sampling. Sometimes they're about Vermont
sites, sometimes not. Of course, while we can't
vouch for the fact that every link we provide will be of interest to
everyone, we do our best to filter out the noise and the bustle and focus
on quality sites. ... In that light, we hope you enjoy these
sites as much as we have. *******
******* If you know of
any links that you think are worthwhile, why not send them along to
...
links@downstreetmagazine.com
... If we agree, we'll be happy to
include them in an upcoming issue to pass the word along. ...
Thanks. *******
******* . |
