Northeastern State University Broken Arrow
John Vaughan LibraryNSU Libraries
 


Departments in the College of Liberal Arts
Communication & Art
Languages & Literature
Performing Arts
Professional Studies
Social Sciences


Other Resources
BlackBoard
Get Flash
Get Help
   IM the Answer
New Books
Search Engines
Research Tutorial
Technical Help
Tutorials
Tutoring

 

Library Instruction for Liberal Arts


 

Mass Comm 4333 Law and Ethics

Sarah Brick Archer
Assistant Professor of  Library Services
Communication & Art Resource Coordinator
Office #L308B
ext. 3267


The NSU Library is a selective depository library (NSU Government Information Department Web Site).  OSU is the full depository library. Laws are derived from both the court and the legislative systems.  For an overview to Communications Law, try Westlaw under the section on Communications & Media under Legal Guides. Try also Communications from Cornell.

Finding Court Documents

Laws are created through state, federal, and supreme courts.  The state and federal court systems have courts on the trial, intermediate (appellate), and supreme court levels.
Reading a citation for a court case:  
           
Hutchinson v. Proxmire 443 U.S. 111
  • Hutchinson is the person who initiated the law suit and Proxmire is the other party. 
  • 443 is the volume of the reporter that contains the court case.
  • U.S. stands for United States Reports which is the court reporter which contains the court case. It contains United States Supreme Court cases.  There are other reporters which also contain supreme court cases.
  • 111 is the page number on which the case begins.
The NSU library does not contain all court reporters.  Some of the reporters are no longer up-to-date in print.  Some reporters have first and second series.  Examples of other court reporters that NSU has are as follows:  United States Reports Ref. KF 101.A15 (U.S. Supreme Court), Federal Reporter Ref. KF 110.1.F4 (U.S. Court of Appeals), Federal Supplement Ref. KF 101.F5 (Federal District Courts), Pacific Reporter Ref. KF 135.P2 (regional state court cases, this one includes Oklahoma cases), and Oklahoma Decisions Ref. KFO 1247.O3x.  The Oklahoma Digest Ref. KFO 1247.1.W47 provides indexing to Oklahoma Decisions.

These cases may also be found using Westlaw Campus.  For example, to search by number, 443us111 in the "Find a Document by Citation" box.  To search by title, type hutchinson and proxmire in the "Find a Document by Title" box. Try also the Legal Information Institute at Cornell and the Oklahoma State Courts Network.

Reading a Court Opinion

When reading an opinion, look for the issues or questions that are raised.  The headnotes, listed under the name of the case, usually provide a good summary of the case. Check for a syllabus of the case, also. Next, look for the resolution or holding of the case.  The point of law should state the meaning of the opinion.  The court case should also list the reasons why the decision was made by listing supporting documents, such as other court cases, statutes, etc. Since five supreme court justices must agree on a case for it to be a legal precedent, there will be majority and minority opinions listed.  Also, look at the level of the court.  Trial courts carry the least weight.  Supreme courts carry the most weight.

Finding Legislative Documents

All states and the federal government are also involved in creating laws.
Public laws (Ref KF 50.A12) list current bills passed by Congress and are arranged by bill number.  United States Statutes at Large (Ref KF 50.U5x) is a chronological listing of bills passed by Congress during each legislative session. An example of a citation would be 48 Stat. 1064.  It can also be listed as a public law (PL). The United States Code (Ref. KF 50.U53x) is a listing of current federal law, so it includes revisions made to laws.  The code is arranged by topic, not chronologically.  The annotated version (Ref. KF 62.A3) includes the history of the law and is updated with pocket parts.  The Congressional Record (Index x1:1/A...) lists committee hearings and debates.  CQ Weekly (Per. JK 1.C15) gives up-to-date information about bills in Congress.  Thomas provides information about Congress including updates on bills.

For Oklahoma legislative information, use the
Oklahoma Session Law Service, Ref. KFO 1231.O474 and Oklahoma Session Laws Ref. KFO 1225.O38 are similar to the federal Statues at LargeOklahoma Statutes, Ref. KFO 1230.2001.A253 lists the current laws.  Oklahoma Statues Annotated, Ref. KFO 1230.A2x provides the history of the law and is updated with pocket parts.  Several Web sites to try include:

Findlaw:  Oklahoma
Current Oklahoma Bills
Oklahoma Bill Tracking

Finding Administrative Documents

Once federal laws are passed, rules and regulations are needed to implement the law.  These federal regulations defined to enforce the federal law.  They first appear in the Federal Register (Index AE 2:106).  These are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (Index AE2.106) which is organized similarly to the United States Code

Many federal agencies publish documents that are distributed through the federal depository system.  Many of these are published online (example:  Federal Communication Commission).

Other Resources

One of the best known legal encyclopedias is Corpus Juris Secundum (Ref. KF 105.C648).  Black's Law Dictionary (Ref. KF 156.B53) is the standard dictionary in law. The Oxford Guide to  United States Supreme Court Decisions (Ref. KF 4548.O97) provides a layman's summary to supreme court decisions. In Westlaw, see . Law reviews or legal journals provide additional sources of information.  Wilson's Index to Legal Periodicals, is a useful source for finding legal journals.  Example of journals include the following:
American Indian Law Review, Per. K1.M437
Oklahoma Bar Journal, Per. KF 200.O5a
Oklahoma Law Review
, Per. K 15.K5

 

Web Sites
American Civil Liberties Union
Coalition of Journalists for Open Government
First Amendment Center
Informal Methods of Combating Secrecy in Local Government
National Freedom of Information Coalition
Radio-Television News Directors Association
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Society of Professional Journalists
Student Press Legal Sites
Sunshine in Government Initiative


Sarah Brick Archer



Library SiteWeb 
Page maintained by: Sarah Brick Archer archersa@nsuok.edu
Last Updated: May 12, 2008

Page created and maintained by Sarah Brick Archer. May 5, 2006. Revised May 12, 2008.
Return to Communication and Art page