American Governmental Institution Resources

American Governmental Institution Resources Updated 12/08/03 California Governmental Institutions and Resources

Links to information on California's elected officials, courts, state agencies, local government, voting and elections, regulations, etc.

Find voter registration information and eligibility requirements for voting; browse ballot propositions and election results for state and national elections in 1996. View legislative and congressional district maps for California. Learn about elections, candidates, parties and PACS including financial information and voting statistics; download the National Mail Voter Registration Form to register to vote from anywhere in the U.S.

View the structure of the court system in California with 100 Municipal Courts, 58 Superior Courts, 18 Courts of Appeal and 1 Supreme Court. Link to a selective list of California municipal and superior court web sites. Read full-text opinions of the California Supreme Court and the California Courts of Appeal. Browse publications available from the Judicial Branch; learn about the Judicial Council of California; link to the Administrative Office of the Court and more.

See all 29 of California's legal code sections (the laws of the state) with a subject and keyword search. Browse a searchable index of all California bills passed through both houses of the Legislature; access statutes by subject and keyword search. Also, Examine the text of current public laws enacted by the U.S. Congress. Browse the major bills and amendments currently before Congress by topic, title, bill number or by those enacted into law. Search the text of public regulations issued by the agencies of the Federal government. California Issues and Problems

Created in 1962 by the California legislature, the Little Hoover Commission (Milton Marks "Little Hoover" Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy) is a bipartisan, independent body whose function is to promote efficiency, effectiveness and economy in state programs. Its reports cover investigations into issues which are important to the legislature, and affect lawmaking.

The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) provides analysis and nonpartisan advice to the California Legislature on fiscal and policy issues, and has done so for over fifty years. The LAO enjoys a national reputation for its fiscal and programmatic expertise, and its high quality, nonpartisan analyses. Many of the reports are available online. Scroll down their page and click on any that you want to read or use.

One of the most comprehensive guides to federal agencies, departments and government information. Note: Be sure to scroll down the page to see the table of contents, organized according to branch of government.

Information on many government agencies and departments are available from this website provided by the University of Michigan Documents Center. Excellent starting place for research on any area of the U.S. government.

Access to federal government information organized by the National Technology Transfer Center. Click on the branch of government your agency or organization is part of, and follow the pathway to the website. You may also search by the name of the agency with their search engine. Links to specific branches of government (Presidency, Congress, Courts) are listed immediately below.) Also check the bottom of this page for additional general government resources.

The Web Page of the Office of the President of the United States.

From the White House, a series of articles on the Presidents of the U.S., including inaugural addresses and quotations. Also has links to additional resources on each president.

The Internet Public Library has an excellent collection of links to information about all U.S. Presidents. Just click on a presidential link, and his special page will be brought up. Then click on: Election Results, Cabinet Members, Presidency Highlights, Internet Biographies, Historical Documents, Media Resources, Fast Facts, or Other Internet Resources for information in those areas.

This collection of information about U.S. Presidents is provided by the Public Broadcasting service, to accompany their PBS Television series: The Presidents. See sections:" Snap Shot, The Era, Domestic Policy, Foreign policy, and Presidential Politics-- in order to get a feel for their work, life and times.

This collection is being published in commemoration of the Bicentennial Presidential Inauguration that was observed on January 20, 1989. Dedicated to the institution of the Presidency and the democratic process that represents the peaceful and orderly transfer of power according to the will of the people.

Brief definition and examples of the meaning of the term: Imperial Presidency.

Lengthy essay about how the office of the President has expanded its powers beyond what the Constitution allows.

Overview of a policy paper, with link to the full report, produced by the conservative political think tank, the Cato Institute.

The official United States Senate website Check on the work of individual senators, creation of laws in the Senate, and how the Senate operates-- plus other useful information.

Listing of all information available with regards to the U.S. House of Representatives. Just about anything you might want to know about our country's laws and the legislative process is available here.

Full text of House and Senate proposed and passed laws. Has text of 108th Congress, and allows searching of two prior Congressional sessions.

U.S. Senate and House of Representatives: legislative information provided by the Library of Congress. Find out about future laws being considered, as well as changes to current law here.

The Legislative Process page provides access to a wealth of information about bills and resolutions being considered in the Congress, as well as current information about what's happening on the House floor. A summary of the categories of information is listed under Legislative Process Information.

Search this database for the full text of the laws of the land. Or, if it is easier for you, use the Table of Contents at the bottom of the site to see laws according to their subject.

Cornell University provides a list of topic summaries with links to key primary source material and off net references can be accessed through: a set of broad topic categories, and an alphabetical listing of topics, and a searchable index. Their commentaries and references are an excellent place to learn about the legal background of various issues. Just start with the general subject area, and follow the pathways to more specific topics.

Knowing the law helps understand government, and vice versa. This site organizes useful links to resources where you can find vast amounts of information about laws on certain subjects. Very helpful. Good place to start looking!

The United States Supreme Court decides on the interpretation of laws passed by Congress. This site allows access to many of those decisions made since 1990. Also includes information about the Court, and links to selected Historic Supreme Court Decisions.

Search the FindLaw database for many U.S. Supreme Court opinions on cases that are not covered by the recent and historic databases. Fills some of the gap between 1975-1990. If you didn't find it there, try here.

This system contains the full text of 7,407 U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from 1937 to 1975. Decisions are available as ASCII text files that can be read on your browser's screen or saved to your hard drive and accessed by using most word processor programs. Most Decisions are very large and may take a while to download if you have a slow internet connection. After conducting a search, the search results screen lists the size of the Decision in bytes so that you can estimate download times.

FindLaw's page that offers court calendar, court rules, Real Audio recordings of the Oral Arguments, Law Journal Extra! news stories, Justices' biographical information and Cornell's free e-mail update service.

FindLaw's excellent set of resources with annotations from the Congressional Research Service Library of Congress with links to cited Supreme Court Cases. More General Federal Government Resources

Exceptionally well presented collection of information on the history of the Social Security program and Social Security Administration. A mix of general-interest material and items that may appeal primarily to scholars. Graphics and photos abound, and there are sound and video clips.

American Governmental Institution Resources
Updated 12/08/03

California Governmental Institutions and Resources

`General American National Government Resources`

`The Presidency`

`The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives`

`The Nation's Laws and the Courts`

More General Federal Government Resources