LibGuides: MHS Library: Law & Society

Databases

ABC-CLIO: Issues This link opens in a new window This database helps students develop an in-depth understanding of how society shapes and is shaped by controversy, providing authoritative historical context, expert perspectives, and carefully selected primary and secondary sources on today's most important issues.
ABC-CLIO: American History This link opens in a new window From the explorers of the Americas to the issues of today’s headlines, American History investigates the people, events, and stories of our nation’s evolution.
Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window Updated weekly, explores and analyzes hundreds of hot topics in politics, business, government, crime, law, energy, education, health, family, science, foreign policy, race, rights, society, and culture.
GALE: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Cross-curricular research tool supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts, covering today’s hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration, to violent video games.
GALE: US History This link opens in a new window Provides a complete overview of our nation’s past that covers the most-studied events, decades, conflicts, wars, political and cultural movements, and people. Topics range from the arrival of Vikings in North America, to the stirrings of the revolution, through to the Civil Rights movement, 9/11, and the War on Terror.

Passwords available in the library or by request via EMAIL

eBooks

eBOOKS (from GALE Virtual Reference Library)

West's Encyclopedia of American Law

Provides current information on more than 5,000 legal topics. Includes completely revised articles covering important issues, biographies, definitions of legal terms and more. Covers such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, and physician-assisted suicide.

Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities

This wide-ranging, multidisciplinary encyclopedia describes and analyzes how the governments profiled affect citizens in the daily exercise of their rights and responsibilities. Arranged alphabetically and richly illustrated, Governments of the World features biographies and historical surveys on different types of political systems, such as constitutional monarchies, presidential systems, democracies and dictatorships, and much more.

Websites: General Law

Legal Information Institute
From Cornell Law School, includes opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1992, over 600 earlier decisions selected for their historic importance, and the full United States Code.
USA.gov: Laws and Regulations
Find Federal and State Laws and Regulations.
New York Time: Law and Legislation
News about Law and Legislation, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Websites: Supreme Court

The Bill of Rights (Transcript)

The Bill of Rights (Simplified)

Supreme Court Website
Official site of the court.
CSPAN: Landmark Cases
Highlights 12 of the most significant and frequently cited decisions in the Supreme Court’s history.
Bill of Rights Institute: Landmark Supreme Court Cases
Case summaries organized by category.
United States Courts
General information about the court and judicial procedures and landmark cases.
Legal Information Institute
Historic Supreme Court decisions by topic.
Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court
Website for teaching Supreme Court Cases from Street Law, Inc. and the Supreme Court Historical Society.
PBS: The Supreme Court, Landmark Cases
Companion website to the PBS series on the history of the Supreme Court.
Oyez - IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
A multimedia archive and source for all of the Court’s audio since the installation of a recording system in October 1955.
Our Documents
100 milestone documents, compiled by the National Archives and Records Administration chronicling United States history from 1776 to 1965. Includes Marbury v Madison; Gibbons v Ogden

Some other Links to help choose a case to research:

Websites: Public Policy

Public Policy Institute of California
Website from nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. Research in policy areas of climate change/energy/water, corrections, economy, fiscal/government reform, health and human services, education, political landscape and population.
Ballot Measures Database
National Conference of State Legislatures database is searchable by topic area, with options such as abortion, criminal justice, education, elections, health, labor and employment, natural resources, tax and revenues, transportation and more, and is updated as new ballot measures qualify to be on the ballot; it now includes all ballot measures that have qualified for 2015.
California Ballot Measures Database
From UC Hastings College of Law, this database is a comprehensive, searchable source of information on California ballot propositions and initiatives from 1911 to the present. It includes the full text of individual ballot propositions, accompanying information contained in the ballot pamphlets, related legal and legislative history, and pdfs of the full ballot pamphlets.
RAND Corporation
Public policy research organization website with policy topic browse feature.
Brookings Institute
A research organization that analyzes emerging public policy problems and offers solutions in books, reports, and articles made available to government officials, experts, and the general public.
Goldman School of Public Policy: UC Berkeley
Includes news feed, research links and webcasts covering a wide range of public policy issues.
Stanford Public Policy Program
Definition of public policy and news feature covering various policy topics.