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Cite Checking Resources

Introduction to cite checking for USD law students

Statutes

You can easily find the United States Code in print in our library or in PDF on HeinOnline.

State statutes are more difficult to locate. 

The Legal Research Center retains the current state print codes for California and Delaware only.  

Bluebook Rule 12.1 was updated in the 21st edition to reflect the reality of access to print statutes. It states:

Official and unofficial codes arrange statutes currently in force by subject matter. Official and privately published session laws report statutes in chronological order of enactment. Citing official codes is preferable, but not required. Cite secondary sources—such as looseleaf services, the CIS microform service, periodicals, newspapers, or electronic databases—only when the above listed sources are not available.

Historical state statutes can be found in PDF on HeinOnline or LLMC. 

Other U.S. Government Publications

                

LRC databases that include Federal government documents

  • Congressional Publications (ProQuest) - Publications generated by the U.S. Congress and accessed via ProQuest, including: CIS Legislative Histories, 1969-present; House & Senate Reports, 1817-present; House & Senate Hearings, 1824-present; Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports, 1916-present; House & Senate Documents, 1817-present, and Committee Prints & Miscellaneous Publications, 1830-present; Executive Reports, 1843-present, & Executive Documents, 1825-1980; Serial Set, 1789-present
  • Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution - Contains thousands of sources tracing the Constitution's progress through each of the thirteen states' conventions
  • HeinOnline - Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register Library, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), History of Supreme Court Nominations, U.S. Congressional Documents, U.S. Congressional Serial Set, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
  • Legislative Insight (ProQuest) - ProQuest Legislative Insight makes available more than 18,000 histories covering laws from 1929 to the present. Nine thousand of these histories are new and 4,000 include new research. Includes only bills that have passed.
  • LLMC Digital - The LLMC database contains archival and other digitized documents online in these topic areas: U.S. Federal Government, U.S. States, U.S. Territories, Anglo-American Collections, Foreign Jurisdictions, International Law and Organizations, and Multijurisdictional Subject Collections.

Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
Find federal publications, as well as descriptive information for historical and current publications and direct links to some full documents

Congress.gov
Open access website that provides access to U.S. federal government Bills, Resolutions Activity in Congress, Congressional Record Schedules, Calendars, Committee Information, Presidential Nominations, Treaties, and other government resources

govinfo
Provides PDF copies of original sources, including CFR, Federal Register, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and many other government publications.

MetaLib
Searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online