Research Help: CJ 2270: Intro to the Legal Process (Bobea): Legal Resources

Core Sources

For various in-class and assigned projects, your main source is going to be Nexis Uni (sometimes called Lexis Nexis). Nexis Uni provides records for court cases at all stages of the legal process, including for cases at the Supreme Court level, which you will be examining. The database also offers tools which allow you to track (via list or visual map) the procedural history of a particular holding.

However, there are MANY search options, and LOTS of information provided at every stage of your search process. This makes using Lexis Nexis a bit intimidating when you're first starting out. On the next page, you'll find screenshots and tips for navigating the site specifically for the purposes of this project.

Nexis Uni, as well as the library-specific resources linked below can be accessed both on and off campus. If you are off campus, you will be promted to enter your Falcon Key (Fitchburg State username and password) for access.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni™, the new interface for Lexis/Nexis. Nexis Uni is a full-text news, business, and legal database with 17,000 sources from around the world, including local, regional, national, and international newspapers, scholarly journals, trade journals, and popular magazines, television and radio broadcasts, and newswires and blogs. Legal sources include federal and state cases and statutes, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1790. Also contains business information on more than 80 million U.S. and international companies.

Additional Helpful Sources

Black's Law Dictionary, Standard Ninth Edition by Bryan A. Garner
Call Number: KF156.B53 2009
ISBN: 9780314199492
Publication Date: 2009
With a reputation for quality and authority that is without peer, Black's Law Dictionary is a must-have reference for attorneys, paralegals, judges, and law students. This ninth edition offers more than 45,000 expertly crafted legal definitions containing an additional 2,000 new terms, nearly 3,000 quotations from legal authorities, and selected terms with their date of origin in American and/or British opinions.

SCOTUSBlog
SCOTUSblog is devoted to covering the U.S. Supreme Court comprehensively, without bias and according to the highest journalistic and legal ethical standards. The blog is provided as a public service.
Oyez
Oyez (pronounced OH-yay)—a free law project from Cornell’s Legal Information Institute (LII), Justia, and Chicago-Kent College of Law—is a multimedia archive devoted to making the Supreme Court of the United States accessible to everyone. It is the most complete and authoritative source for all of the Court’s audio since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. Oyez offers transcript-synchronized and searchable audio, plain-English case summaries, illustrated decision information, and full-text Supreme Court opinions (through Justia). Oyez also provides detailed information on every justice throughout the Court’s history and offers a panoramic tour of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of several justices.
Massachusetts Legislature
The official site of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' State Legislature. This site provides access to bills, laws, legislator profiles, state committees and commissions, and more.
Massachusetts Trial Court Law Library
U.S. Law Week
National coverage of significant cases and key legislative and regulatory developments across all areas of the law, summaries of selected federal court, state court and administrative cases. Access Supreme Court Today via link on left side of screen.
Wrongful Convictions Blog
This blog covers any and all issues–wherever they arise in the world–related to the problem of wrongful conviction of the innocent.
Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences Series
This collection contains information on federal criminal cases sentenced under the Sentencing Guidelines and Policy Statements of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. The data files include all cases received by the United States Sentencing Commission that had sentencing dates between November 1, 1987, and September 30, 1995, and were assessed as constitutional. Constitutionality compares each case's sentencing date, circuit, district, and judge to provide uniformity in reporting the cases.
U.S. Sentencing Commission Data Reports
Using Commission data, the Office of Research and Data publishes periodic reports on federal sentencing practices and tracks the application of the sentencing guidelines. These data reports provide information concerning the types of crimes committed, the offenders who commit those crimes, the punishments imposed, and the manner in which the sentencing guidelines were applied.
Prisons and Justice Initiative
The Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative (PJI) connects people affected by mass incarceration with opportunities to shape their own futures. In prisons, in our local communities, and on campus, PJI aims to empower currently and formerly incarcerated people as scholars, leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and advocates.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
The mission of BJS is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.
FAMM - Families for Justice Reform
FAMM’s mission is to create a more fair and effective justice system that respects our American values of individual accountability and dignity while keeping our communities safe.
The Sentencing Project
The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
The Marshall Project
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system.

CJ 2270: Intro to the Legal Process (Bobea)

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Core Sources

Additional Helpful Sources