Law 

U.S. Courts and State Courts:
A Comparison

United States Courts

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U.S. Courts

U.S. Courts: The Federal Judiciary

U.S.Supreme Court Center
from FindLaw

U.S. Federal Courts Finder 
Links to all ten U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal

State Courts

State Court Web Sites

Courts.net
State and federal court information

Start by using the following two major Law information services:

LexisNexis® Academic  - info

• U.S. Supreme Court decisions from January 1790 to present
• U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decisions
• U.S. District Court decisions from 1789 to present
• Decisions from Bankruptcy Courts; U.S. Court of International Trade; Tax Courts; Courts of Customs and Patent Appeals, and Veterans, Commerce, and Military Courts
• State court decisions at all court levels for all 50 states and territories
• European Union law from the CELEX database and international case law from a number of other countries
  
  LexisNexis® Academic Quick Tips: Finding Cases 

Westlaw's Campus Research ™  -  info

• Federal case law from 1789
• State case law (coverage varies, generally from the 1800s).

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Free Appellate Court Briefs by Jurisdiction
LexisNexis® Academic does not cover briefs for courts other than the US Supreme Court. Use this list of free sources to locate Lower Court briefs for state and federal court of appeals.

Supreme Court Decisions 1937-1975
"The full text of Supreme Court Decisions issued between 1937 and 1975, containing 7,407 Decisions from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports, has been provided to the U.S. Government Printing Office through efforts of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. It was furnished by the U.S. Air Force from its FLITE ("Federal Legal Information Through Electronics") system. GPO is making the database available to the public without costly validation efforts and cannot attest to its authenticity or completeness."

The Oyez Project
"A multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices."
from: About the Oyez Project

FindLaw
Supreme Court Cases, Briefs, Dockets.  Includes a Case Index by Topic/Term which allows users to quickly locate Supreme Court Cases on specific topics for 2000-2006.

See the Library Toolkit: United States Supreme Court.

Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (LII 2007 ed.)
by Peter W. Martin

"When lawyers present legal arguments and judges write opinions, they cite authority. They lace their representations of what the law is and how it applies to a given situation with references to statutes, regulations, and prior appellate decisions they believe to be pertinent and supporting."

This guide presents an up to date online version of legal ciatation style.