Biddleblog

Governmental web sites are usually one of the first places people go for official government information. Few of us, however, know that government blogs exist as a possible source of information. It may surprise many to learn that the federal government maintains a web page entitled "Blogs from the U.S. Government," which lists active and archived government blogs.

While governments have been slow to embrace Web 2.0 technology, it has nevertheless begun to do so. According to Webcontent.gov, "Blogs put a human face on government. They can make government more 'open' by allowing more interaction between government and its citizens." Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, is quoted on webcontent.gov as saying: "It's all about openness. People see blogs as a reflection of an open communicative culture that isn't afraid to be self-critical." Since 57 million adult Americans read blogs (according to a 2006 Pew Internet & American Life Project report called Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet's New Storytellers (PDF)) government blogs serve as a more dynamic way to engage or further a dialogue between citizens and governmental officials.

A perusal of "Blogs from the U.S. Government" reveals a variety of blogs ranging from "Peace Corps Volunteer Journals," concerning the experiences of Peace Corp workers, to the State Department's "Dipnote," which "offers the public an alternative source to mainstream media for U.S. foreign policy information and the opportunity to discuss important foreign policy issues with senior State Department officials." Of particular interests to many of us at this moment is the Congressional Budget Office Director's Blog, which among several objectives, attempts to remedy misunderstandings of CBO data or testimony.

There are those who will seriously question the veracity, value and reliability of information found on government blogs, as indeed should be the case. Regardless, government blogs remain a potential resource which may provide invaluable information and insight.

For further reading about government blogs, I recommend Professor David C. Wyld's report entitled The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0 (PDF).

Reference librarians like to help people find useful information; it is one of the joys of our jobs.  Recently, I have been asked by several patrons where they can access PDF copies of information produced by the Federal Government.  As a reference librarian, I enjoy these kinds of questions because they provide terrific opportunities to both assist and educate patrons on a legal resource available, available to anyone free of charge, through the Government Printing Office (GPO).

The GPO has done a terrific job organizing access to materials produced by the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches of our Federal Government.  Visiting these sites, you will encounter the kinds of resources reference librarians are asked about on a a daily basis such as the Legislative History of Bills, the Congressional Record, Conference and Committee Reports, Public and Private Laws, the Statutes at Large, the U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register, and Court Opinions, just to name a few.  It is important to note however, that excepting the Supreme Court materials, GPO Access only provides historical access to resources dating back to the 1990s.

GPO Access is a terrific resource that is both free and easy to use.  With just a little practice, researchers can save themselves and their clients a great deal of money by pulling resources from this open source.

You’ve heard that a regulation is due any day now, and you can’t wait to see it.  Where do you turn? 

The Office of the Federal Register has created the Public Inspection Desk to provide online access to materials that will be published in the Federal Register.  Typescript copies are available as PDFs.  Many federal agencies have been doing this for some time (e.g., the SEC) and probably will remain sources for advance copies of rules, regs and notices that will be published in Federal Register materials.  However, one of the most useful features of the Public Inspection Desk is the target date of publication.  If you are going to work in a regulatory practice, you will want to save this link: http://www.federalregister.gov/inspection.aspx.

This is only part of the story.  Federal rules and regulations touch on all aspects of our lives.  We know that new rules appear in the Federal Register.  And we also know that those rules are codified as regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  The Feds have even worked out how to help you find current regulations with nearly one-stop shopping – in the eCFR.

If you want to learn more about federal regulations and research in administrative law, I'll be conducting a presentation entitled "Administrative Law: Federal Rules and Regulations" at noon on February 23, 2009 in G-214.  Please contact me to sign up, as pizza will be provided.

The 2008 Presidential Campaign was an exciting and historically significant race of special interest to legal and political researchers. The importance of the issues and the biographies of the candidates ensured this race a place in history. However, this election cycle also marked the advent of new ways to involve the average citizen in the campaign process. Web 2.0 technolgies were applied to politics through the use of sophisticated, interactive websites and social networking tools. Interested observers were given unprecedented access to information. 

The election may be over, but your access to the issues doesn't have to end with Inauguration Day. The Obama administration has committed itself to transparent government, which is a boon for legal reseachers. A great place to begin exploring the Executive Branch is the the official website of the White House. This site offers many useful resources to the legal researcher, including videos, audio clips, blogs, position statements, and the text of important Executive actions.

The home page highlights recent important events with video clips and links. Notice that in the upper right hand corner, you have the option to sign up for email updates. The main page also offers you a basic keyword search feature. Scrolling down to the bottom of the page allows you the option of viewing the page in Spanish or reading copyright and privacy policies.

The Briefing Room portion of the site features a frequently updated blog that reports on the activities of the President and Vice President.The Briefing Room also holds the text of all Executive Orders,  Presidential Proclamations, and the the names and positions of all Presidential Appointments and Nominations.

Another useful feature of the site is the Agenda page. This portion of the site explains the Obama administration's position on a number of important issues, such as the economy, Iraq, and the environment.

The White House site also quickly links you to important government officials through the Administration page. Short biographies and appropriate website addresses are available for the President, First Lady, Vice President, the Cabinet, White House Staff, and Executive Office staff. Information on the branches of government and federal agencies and commissions is available through the section of the site entitled "Our Government".

It is important to note that the White House site only contains information on the current administration. To access documents from past administrations, use GPOAccess, as explained in the Nov. 25th Biddleblog post.

In the case of the Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft (303 F.3d 631), Judge Damon J. Keith stated "Democracies die behind closed doors." The Obama administration has pledged itself to transparent government. A good way to monitor this committment is through the White House website.

Are the doors of our government truly open? Visit the White House site and form your own judgment on the Obama administration's "Open House" policy.

I am posting this entry on behalf of our reference intern, Michele Penn, who brought this very cool site to my attention.--Jordon

Are you trying to find text of Senate debate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a. the "Stimulus Package")? What about a presidential signing statement from 2003? How long would it take for you to find those documents, and which web sites would you use?

Two government watchdog organizations, OpenTheGovernment.org and the Sunlight Foundation, have teamed with a nonprofit technology organization, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), to create a web site, ShowUsTheData.org.  The site asks users to nominate and vote on which unclassified federal government documents should be available online.  Here, "online" means findability and access in places other than official ".gov" sites. According to the web site's documentation, the goal of the project is to "encourage open government and citizen participation in democracy through full disclosure of unclassified government documents in open, interoperable formats."  Visitors to the site can suggest a document created by any of the three branches of government or vote on up to three "Most Requested Documents." 

The collaborators on this project do not accuse the federal government of hiding or limiting access to government information; rather, the argument is that most web users look to commercial search engines for government information, and that information is difficult to find there or not there at all (because departments and agencies do not open their sites to web crawlers). The E-Government Act of 2002 has made government documents easier to find, but the bill to reauthorize the Act died in committee last fall. Government documents are organized by branch on GPOAccess.gov, but that site can be cumbersome for inexperienced searchers and users who are not aware of government jargon. Groups like the CDT and the Sunlight Foundation want for documents to be accessible where most people first tend to look: the commercial search engine.

This project is timely, as the Obama administration has committed to open government and transparency in governmental action. Whether for a clerkship or personal use, it is likely that you will have a need to find government documents. Check out ShowUsTheData.org to vote for the documents you'd like to feature more prominently on the web.

As we enter the March Madness of The Final Four, here is a legal research tip that should help you to visualize the relationships between four primary legal sources.  I like to call them "The Big Four."

The Big Four comprises the following four resources: Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations.   Even if you forget the mechanics of moving from any one quadrant to the other three--as in basketball, practice makes perfect--you will be ahead of the game in your summer or permanent job if you can internalize the basic concepts portrayed in the chart below. 

You may also download this chart by clicking the following link: big four09.pdf.

The top 2 boxes in the Big Four chart are statutes passed by Congress.  The bottom 2 are regulations written by agency officials.  The bottom 2 are sometimes called "delegated legislation" because they cannot exist without statutory authority. 

It is also useful to read this chart from left to right.  The left 2 boxes are the chronological, historical record, while the 2 on the right are current, subject-arranged codes with obsolete matters dropped.   The left 2 are useful for legislative history and background information on regulations.  The right 2 are essential for practicing law today.  However, sometimes you have to consult the left 2 boxes for very recent laws, such as President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, because they haven't yet migrated to their codified versions on the right.

The chart above shows a familiar statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  This is the title that forbids discrimination in employment on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex or national origin."  But how do you find it?  A glance at the chart will tell you that Title VII is the original title in the 1964 session law--not the title in the current U.S. Code, i.e. 42.  The move from left to right quadrants is one that even Scottie Reynolds might miss because it is a change in both number (7 to 42) as well as form (Roman to arabic). 

Things can get even more complicated when you realize that the 50 titles of the U.S. Code are usually not the same as the 50 titles of the C.F.R.  Conversion tables in paper are readily available in any law library or online on Westlaw.

Reference librarians in Biddle love to help people navigate the legislative/regulatory maze.   If you have any questions, stop by the Reference Desk anytime or call 215-898-7853.

Given today's challenging economic climate, more attorneys are choosing to turn away from fee-based databases (e.g. Lexis and Westlaw) and are instead conducting basic legal research utilizing free (and reliable) internet resources. 

Although not appropriate for every situation, free legal research databases offer an an attractive and cost-effective alternative for many researchers who are simply searching for basic legislative, regulatory, and judicial information. 

One of the primary websites utilized by researchers and librarians alike for accessing free legal information is GPO Access.  Maintained by the Government Printing Office, GPO Access is a web portal that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government, including judicial opinions, legislative materials and regulatory information.  Some of the more popular materials linked to from GPO Access include: U.S. Supreme Court Slip Opinions and Docket Information; the U.S. Code; the Congressional Record; the Code of Federal Regulations; and the Federal Register.

Another outstanding website for finding free and relaible legal information is the Legal Information Institute (LII).  Maintained by the Cornell Law School, the LII provides publishes a series of “topical” pages that serve as concise explanatory guides and Internet resource listings for roughly 100 areas of law.  Access to free State and International legal resources is also provided.

If you still cannot find the information you are looking for via GPO Access or LII, be sure to consult some of the excellent research guides produced by academic law libraries that delineate the myriad of free legal resources available.  Georgetown and Duke Law Library research guides on free and low cost legal research are two wonderful examples of these easy-to-use guides that are chock full of useful information.  

Penn Law students entering the workplace this summer would be well-served knowing the basics of finding and utilizing appropriate free and low cost research materials.  Good luck and happy researching!

When law school journal cite checkers request an electronic document, they often ask, “Is it in PDF (Adobe portable document format)?”   The goal of course is to find an original and authoritative document, and not an altered and less reliable document.    When it comes to federal government documents such as statutes and regulations, journal students likewise ask, “Is it in PDF?”  This is a fair question since electronic government documents may be modified after release by the government.

By Genevieve Tung, Biddle Law Library Intern

Here’s a new way to keep an eye on what’s happening in Washington. MetaVid is a new video archive of the U.S. Congress, containing footage of legislative sessions going back to 2006. You can search or browse clips by the name of the speaker, words spoken, date, and user-contributed tags (categories of which include “Volcano,” “Tea Party” and “As Seen on the Daily Show.”) By combining a video library with a wiki format, the collection should get stronger and easier to use as its audience grows.