Guides: Political Science: U.S. Government Resources

Legislative and Executive Branch Resources

General

Congress.gov
Search the legislative record for current or past legislation and floor debates.
GovInfo
Provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government
U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian
Offers complete full text access to the Foreign Relations of the United States series as well as many other official documents. Clearly designed and easy to use.
U.S. Census Bureau
Provides data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. Information about people and households, business and industry, geography, news, and special topics are gathered in this website.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
CRS is a nonpartisan shared staff to support congressional members throughout the legislative process. CRS approaches complex topics from a variety of perspectives and examines all sides of an issue. Staff members analyze current policies and present the impact of proposed policy alternatives.

Education

National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education.

Environment

EPA Laws and Regulations
Laws and policy interpretations from the EPA, categorized by subject area.
National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP)
This site is EPA's premier site for accessing EPA publications, with more than 7,000 in stock and 40,000 digital titles, free of charge! EPA’s print publications are available through the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP), and EPA's digital publications are stored in the National Environmental Publications Internet Site (NEPIS) database! You can search and retrieve, download, print and/or order only EPA publications from this site.
USDA Topic
Resources and information from the USDA, browse by topic.

Crime and Justice

Bureau of Justice Statistics
Collections information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.

Judicial Branch Resources

Justia
Browse or search for U.S. legal code, legal opinions, and case law. Includes state and federal jurisdictions.
Researching Legal Opinions (Library of Congress)
A legal research guide from the Library of Congress, including information on where judicial opinions are published and how to read legal citations.
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.
RECAP
A freely available repository of court documents and dockets. Duplication of PACER content.
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PACER is the government-run database of legal documents and court dockets. These documents are in the public domain, but PACER charges users to access them. RECAP is a repository of documents donated by individuals who have downloaded them from PACER.

Public Resources

Annenberg Public Policy Center
Website of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Legal Information Institute (Cornell University)
An excellent collection of legal resources including links to the U.S. Constitution, Federal & State laws, the Supreme Court, the Code of Federal Regulations and much more.
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, launched in 2001, seeks to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs.
National Security Archive
Founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to check rising government secrecy, the National Security Archive combines a unique range of functions: investigative journalism center, research institute on international affairs, library and archive of declassified U.S. documents, leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information, global advocate of open government, and indexer and publisher of former secrets.

Government and Politics

Alexander Hamilton Papers (Library of Congress)
The papers of Alexander Hamilton (ca. 1757-1804), first treasury secretary of the United States, consist of his personal and public correspondence, drafts of his writings (although not his Federalist essays), and correspondence among members of the Hamilton and Schuyler families.

American Indians and the American West, 1809-1971 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes collections from the U.S. National Archives, a series of collections from the Chicago History Museum, as well as selected first-hand accounts on Indian Wars and westward migration.
American Politics and Society from Kennedy to Watergate (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A compilation of document types from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies as well as records from federal agencies. Issues chronicled include women's rights, environmental issues, urban renewal, rural development, tax reform, civil rights, space exploration, international trade, War on Poverty, and the Watergate trials.
Black Abolitionist Papers (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
This collection includes the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, a collection of FBI Files covering five pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, detailing the interaction between civil rights leaders and organizations and the highest levels of the federal government.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains organizational records from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, along with papers of civil rights leaders.
CIA Cold War Research Reports and Records on Communism in China and Eastern Europe: 1917-1976 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes the CIA Research Reports from 1946-1976 and records collected by Raymond Murphy on Communism in China and Eastern Europe from 1917-1958, reporting on eight areas: Middle East; Soviet Union; Vietnam and Southeast Asia; China; Japan, Korea, and Asian security; Europe; Africa; and Latin America.
Colonial State Papers: 1574 - 1757 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, including coverage of the earliest English settlements in North America, encounters with Native Americans, piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean, the trade in enslaved persons, and English conflicts with the Spanish and French.
FBI Confidential Files and Radical Politics in the U.S., 1945-1972 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Contains records of the FBI and the Subversive Activities Control Board from 1945-1972.
HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline Academic includes more than 100 million pages of multidisciplinary content in more than 100 subject areas, including history, political science, criminal justice, religious studies, international relations, women’s studies, pre-law, and many more. With more historical content than any other database, HeinOnline provides access to 300+ years of information on political development and the complete history of the creation of government and legal systems around the world.
Human Rights Studies Online: Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, and Conflict Resolution (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Provides comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010.
Indian Claims Insight (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes decisions, transcripts, docket books, journals of the Indian Claims Commission (a judicial panel for relations between the U.S. Government and Native American tribes), and related statutes and congressional publications.
Indigenous Peoples: North America This link opens in a new window
Indigenous Peoples: North America sources collections from across Canadian and American institutions, providing insight into the cultural, political and social history of Native Peoples from the seventeenth into the twentieth century. Including diverse manuscripts; book collections; newspapers from various tribe and Indian-related organizations; materials such as Bibles, dictionaries and primers in Indigenous languages all enable students' examination of important primary source materials.
Law and Society since the Civil War: American Legal Manuscripts from the Harvard Law School Library (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes content highlighting Supreme Court Justices, federal judges, high-profile cases, and insights into developing ideologies and laws, as far back as 1861.
NAACP Papers: The NAACPs Major Campaigns Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Covers major campaigns for equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military.
Revolution and Protest Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Provides a comprehensive, comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of political processes through the lens of revolutions, protests, resistance and social movements occurring between the 18th and 21th centuries.
Women and Social Movements in the U.S. - Scholar's Edition (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors.
World War I: Records of the American Expeditionary Forces, and Diplomacy in the World War I Era (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes documentation on the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I as well as materials on U.S. intelligence operations and the post-war peace process.
Archives Unbound: African American Studies This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on civil rights in the 1960s, including school integration and freedom riders.
Archives Unbound: American Studies This link opens in a new window
Contains small, specialized collections of primary sources. Emphasis on anti-communist movements of the 1950s, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and FBI files on notable public figures, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Alger Hiss, John E. Lewis, and Harry Dexter White.