Law: Primary Sources
Charters of Freedom
The text, digitized images, and more about the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
The Judicial Branch
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Nexis UniNexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
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Supreme Court Opinions (via Cornell Law School)Includes Supreme Court opinions under the auspices of Project Hermes, the Court's electronic-dissemination project.
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Judicial Branch WebsitesA gateway to the official pages of Federal Courts and agencies in the United States Judicial Branch.
Newspapers and Magazines
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New York Times Article ArchiveThe complete backfile of The New York Times can be searched from NYTimes.com, over 16 million articles in all. The database gives free access to articles from 1857 to 1922, and after 1987. For the full text of articles that appeared between 1923 and 1986, you can use the microfilm copies of the NYT, available on the lower floor of Milne Library.
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Readers' Guide RetrospectiveComprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890 - 1982. Reflects the history of 20th century America.
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Chronicling America: Historic American NewspapersThis site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
The Legislative Branch
See the Section above "From a Bill to a Law" to find specific Primary Sources in the Legislative Process.
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Library of Congress Digital CollectionsBrowse the full array of digitized collections at the Library of Congress.
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Congress.govProvides full-text access to current and recent U.S. Congressional and legislative documents. Includes some historical documents.
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FDsys - Government PublicationsThe Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System (FDsys) is an advanced digital system that enables GPO to manage Government information from all three branches of the U.S. Government.
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U.S. House of RepresentativesThe official homepage where you can find current and archived information for legislation in the House of Representatives.
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U.S. SenateThe official homepage, where you can find current and archived information about legislation in the Senate.
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U.S. House of Representatives CommitteesA list of the Committees in the House of the Representatives with links to each Committee's official homepage.
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U.S. Senate CommitteesA list of the Committees in the U.S. Senate with links to each Committee's official homepage.
The Executive Branch
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White HouseThe official homepage for the White House, this is where you can go to find the Executive Branch's response to current legislation and other events from local to international.
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Library of Congress Digital CollectionsBrowse the full array of digitized collections at the Library of Congress.
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Public Papers of the Presidents (FDsys)The Public Papers of the Presidents is published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and is the official publication of United States Presidents' public writings, addresses, and remarks from Presidents' Hoover through the current president.
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Executive Orders (American Presidency Project)Presidential Executive Orders from the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara 1826 - present.
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Executive Branch WebsitesThe following is a list of each of the Departments in the Executive Branch of the government and their associated organizations.
Other
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Avalon Project at YalePrimary source materials in the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government.
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Making of AmericaIs a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction.
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Core Documents of U.S. DemocracyA compilation of both historical and modern documents and resources that have helped to define America's Modern Democracy.
Subject Guide
Research Librarian
Contact:
Meet with a Librarian
Email: Libraryhelp@geneseo.edu
Email: Libraryhelp@geneseo.edu
Subjects:Area Studies, Fake News