The Congressional Research Service (CRS) late last year put out an interesting report on lawmaking in the U.S. Congress:
Congressional Lawmaking: A Perspective On Secrecy and Transparency
Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog.
Cross-posted on Legal Research Plus.
The non-profit organization MapLight has posted webpages as to the U.S. Congress and certain state legislatures (California and Wisconsin) regarding money’s influence on politics:
See also here.
Hat tip to Resource Shelf.
Posted in government information, information, open access, Public interest, research tools
Tagged California Legislature, money's influence on politics, non-profit organization Maplight, Nonpartisan research organization MapLight reveals money's influence on politics, Resoruce Shelf, U.S. Congress, Wisconsin Legislature
The U.S. Courts website has just announced a new project to enhance public access to U.S. federal court opinions:
New Pilot Project Will Enhance Public Access to Federal Court Opinions
The full announcement reads:
New Pilot Project Will Enhance Public Access to Federal Court Opinions
May 04, 2011
A dozen federal courts have been selected to participate in a pilot program in which the federal judiciary and the Government Printing Office are partnering to provide free public access to court opinions through the GPO’s FDSys system.
The one-year pilot project was approved by the Judicial Conference in March 2010, and the GPO received approval from the Joint Committee on Printing – often referred to as the oldest joint committee of the Congress – in February 2011.
When fully implemented later this year, the pilot will include two courts of appeals, seven district courts, and three bankruptcy courts. In March, the Judicial Conference approved expansion of the pilot to include up to 30 additional courts.
The judiciary continually has sought ways to enhance public access to court opinions. Free access to opinions in all federal courts is currently available via the judiciary’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records service (PACER).
Building on that success, staff from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts met with GPO management to explore making opinions even more accessible. Fdsys can provide the public with a robust search engine that can search common threads across opinions and courts.
The initial 12 participating courts are the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits; the U.S. district courts for the Districts of Minnesota, Rhode Island, Maryland, Idaho, and Kansas, the Northern District of New York, and the Northern District of Alabama; and the U.S. bankruptcy courts for the District of Maine, the Southern District of Florida, and the Southern District of New York.
Cross-posted on Legal Research Plus.
Posted in government information, information, open access, Public interest
Tagged "New Pilot Project Will Enhance Public Access to Federal Court Opinions", Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and Kansas, and the Southern District of New York, Federal Digital System (FDsys), Idaho, Joint Committee on Printing (JCP), Judicial Conference of the United States, Maryland, Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), Rhode Island, the Northern District of New York, the Southern District of Florida, U.S. bankruptcy courts for the District of Maine, U.S. Congress, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits, U.S. Courts website, U.S. district courts for the Districts of Minnesota, U.S. federal court opinions, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO)
