View the instructions and download Adobe Acrobat Reader software at no cost.

• Constitutions: Federal And State
• Finding a Legal Citation
• Finding The Status of Pending Legislation
• Internet Resources: A Select Listing

• Codified And Common Law
• Finding New Laws
• Legal Resources on Selected Topics

A collection of articles on each of the fifty state constitutions of the United States.

Beyond federal and state constitutions, the law sources found at the Naperville Public Library can be classified as either codified law (the legislative acts passed by the United States Congress or state legislatures) or as common law (the decisions of federal, state, and local courts). The Naperville Public Library, while not a full-service legal research facility, is able to provide access to a substantial number of the federal, state, and local law sources publicly available.

The Naperville Public Library holds basic resources in federal, state, and local codified law in its collections, searchable by Popular Name, Subject, and Citation.;

Legal research by subject in paper sources is difficult. Street terms for a subject may not be the ones lawyers use when discussing the subject. Cross-referencing in the subject indexes to law codes is confusing to a first-time user. Below are examples of subjects and what the different cross-referencing terms mean when using the subject indexes for the United States Code and the Illinois Compiled Statutes. 

1. et seq. – used to indicate that the subject is covered on a number of pages and sections after the section named.
   Example: "38 5011 et seq." translates to “Title 38, section 5011 and following sections."

2. ante – directs the user to the earlier parts of the alphabetical list of subjects under the same heading.
   Example: Under the subject “Atomic Energy,” subheading “Officers and Employees,” you find “Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ante, this heading.” This means you should look under “Atomic Energy,” subheading “Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” found under the earlier subheadings, to find matter related to its officers and employees.

3. post – directs the user to the later part of the alphabetical list of subjects under the same heading.
   Example: Under the subject “Aliens,” subheading “Crimes and offenses,” you find “Political contributions by, generally, post, this heading.” This means you should look under “Aliens,” subheading “Political contributions,” found in the later subheadings, to locate matter related to the political contributions of aliens.

The Code may be searched on line at these sites:
http://uscode.house.gov/
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html

Citations for laws and regulations follow a certain formula: a number followed by a symbol or punctuation mark, followed again by a number. Below are typical law citations for the United States and Illinois laws and regulations found in the Nichols Library legal sources:

This is the number a law is given when it is approved by Congress and the President. It is found usually along with a United States Code citation unless it is no longer in force. This citation signals that it is the 479th law passed by the 85th Congress. Use these citations to find laws of the 95th -109th Congress in the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (Reference 342.73 UNI, Nichols Library only). For older congresses, use Table III of the Tables volumes of the United States Code to find the Code citations corresponding to your Public Law citation. Public Laws later than PL 109-229 (May 2006) can be found at the U. S. Government Printing Office website:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plaws/index.html

This citation signals that it is the first law enacted by the 85th Illinois General Assembly. Use these citations with the Illinois Legislative Service to find laws before they are codified in the Illinois Compiled Statutes (Reference 345.773 ILL, Nichols Library only).

Online, these citations beginning with the 90th Illinois General Assembly can be found at:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/default.asp

Read as "Title 92 of the Illinois Administrative Code, Part 1520."

Find these citations online at:
http://www.igla.gov/legislation/publicacts/default.asp

This website contains laws as passed by Congress before they are filed under topics in the United States Code. You may look these up by Public Law (PL) number, Statutes At Large (Stat.) number, popular name, or subject. Public laws may be searched on this site back to the 104th Congress of 1995-96. For older laws, try U. S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (Reference 342.73 UNI, Nichols Library only)

Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders can found in the Federal Register at:

Burdette Smith Co.

This tool supplements the Illinois Compiled Statutes, 2004 edition, beginning with the 94th General Assembly to the present.

Federal bills are usually identified by these citation forms:

denotes a United States Senate bill. This number indicates that it is the 134th Senate bill to be introduced for that Congress.;

This periodical is an easy-to-read digest of the work of Congress each week. Consult the yellow-colored index by subject to find pages in the reports discussing a piece of pending legislation. A select list of this legislation can be found in the “Status of Major Legislation” section, featured in most issues of the reports. Major articles explaining important new laws are also a valuable part of this source.

Illinois General Assembly bills are usually identified with these citation forms:

denotes an Illinois Senate bill. The number indicates that this is the 1634th Senate bill to be introduced for that General Assembly.

denotes an Illinois House of Representatives bill. The number indicates that this is the 115th House bill to be introduced for that General Assembly.

For up-to-date information on legislation, try the Illinois General Assembly website. Its website address is:

You may also call the Illinois House Speaker’s Office, which has a hotline for finding the status of any bill now pending. The number is 1-800-252-6300. The hotline operates Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and weekend days at varying hours when the legislature is in session. In addition, the Illinois Legislature operates a service you can call for bill status research, available 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number is 1-217-782-3356.

Also available online at: http://www.naperville.il.us/dynamic_content.aspx?id=235

Naperville City laws are found in the Municipal Code. Consult the index, which provides subject access to individual ordinances. For example, under the subject of "weeds", you find the number 9-1B- 2.2. Read this as “Title 9, Chapter 1 Article B, Section 2, paragraph 2.”

(available at Nichols Library only)

Complete texts of enacted resolutions and ordinances, filed in manila envelope packets by Council meeting date. Ordinances, before they become part of the Code, will have numbers such as “07-078.” This means the ordinance was the 78th ordinance passed in the year 2007 by the Council, and you would look in the 2007 packets of the Minutes for its text. Unfortunately, there is no subject access to the actions of the Council in these packets

City Council meeting minutes may also be accessed online from the latest back to 2002. Find them at:
http://www.naperville.il.us/dynamic_content.aspx?id=231

The Naperville Public Libraries has a limited collection only of the most significant United States Supreme Court cases. The best collection of these cases is found in:

Beverly Hills, CA: Excellent Books, 1991-2006 (available at Nichols Library only)

For better access to court decisions, consult the court decisions part of the Internet Resources section of this pamphlet. Outside of Naperville Public Library, the public may use the facilities below for access to court decisions:

Oesterle Library
North Central College
320 East School Street
Naperville, Illinois 60540
Phone: 630-637-5700
Call for hours
Has the LEXUS/NEXUS electronic database for full access to legislative acts and court decisions. Ask for the Reference Librarian on duty to use.

DuPage County Law Library
505 North County Farm Road
Wheaton, Illinois 60137
Phone: 630-682-7337
Hours 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Monday through Friday

GENERAL RESOURCES

Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006

An electronic version is available in the Naperville Public Library Online Database Collection in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

2nd edition

Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005

An electronic version is available in the Naperville Public Library Online Database Collection in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Berkeley, CA ; Nolo Press, 2005

Berkeley, CA ; Nolo Press, 2006

7th edition
Berkeley, CA; Nolo Press, 2004

5th edition
Berkeley, CA; Nolo Press, 2006
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

5th edition
Naperville, IL; Sphinx Publications, 2004
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

3rd edition

1st edition
Naperville, IL; Sphinx Publications, 2002
(available at Nichols and Naper Boulevard libraries)

2 volumes
7th edition
St. Paul, MN; Thomson/West, 2006
(available at Nichols Library only)

3rd edition
Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press, 2003
(available at Nichols and 95th Street libraries)

4th edition
Naperville, IL; Sphinx Publications, 2006
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

4th edition
Carbondale, IL: Nova Publishing Company, 2005
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

4th edition
Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press, 2006
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

3rd edition
Carbondale, IL: Nova Publishers, 2001
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

2nd edition
Naperville, IL: Sphinx Publishers, 2003
(available at Nichols, Naper Boulevard, and 95th Street libraries)

4th edition
Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press, 2004
(available at Nichols Library only)

3rd edition
Naperville, IL; Sphinx Publications, 2006
(available at Nichols and 95th Street Libraries)

7th edition
Berkeley, CA; Nolo, 2006
(available at Nichols Library only)

(available at Nichols Libraries only)

Available through the National Archives and Records Administration through the US Government Printing Office website, GPO Access, this Internet site contains laws passed by the United States Congress from the 104th Congress (1995-1996) to the present.

THOMAS, offered through the Library of Congress, reports the activities of the United States Congress starting with the 101st Congress of 1989-1990 to date. Full texts of bills, bill status, roll call votes, and Public Laws from 1973 to date among many other legislative features.

Several websites feature versions of the United States Code. The United States House of Representatives site has the latest updates. The web address is:

Complete (minus the latest changes) editions of the code are found at the United States Government Printing Office and Law School of Cornell University websites, listed below:

Illinois Public Acts are available from the 90th Illinois General Assembly (1997-98) to the present via the Assembly’s website: The address is:

Pending legislation in both the Illinois Senate and House of Representatives is found here. The address is:

The full text of the Illinois statutes can be accessed from the Illinois General Assembly website at:

On this site, use the hyperlink titled “Primary Materials: Cases, Codes and Regulations” to access them.

The Municipal Code Corporation maintains a website that contains the municipal codes of many U.S. cities. Find the full texts of these codes at:

The City of Naperville makes the entire text of its code available on the web at the following address:;

The Federal Register will provide the full texts of new regulations under review for approval. Uses the links provided at the above site or dial it directly at:

The Illinois Administrative Code is available through the website of the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules. It can be accessed below at:

Some states, such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, have all their regulations available, and these are accessible through the state governments index of Findlaw. Choose from the menu of states displayed here to find if the state of your choice has made its regulations available on the Internet. The address of this Findlaw index is:

On this site, use the hyperlink titled “Primary Materials: Cases, Codes and Regulations” to access them.

NOTE: Noncommercial online databases of court decisions usually date no further back than the mid-1990’s. The United States Supreme Court decisions database is the one exception to this rule. For court decisions earlier than the mid-1990’s, try the LEXUS/NEXUS database, available at no charge at:

Oesterle Library
North Central College
320 East School Street
Naperville, Illinois 60540
Phone: 630-357-682-7337
Hours 8:30 am – 4:30 pm Monday through Friday

The full texts of United States Supreme Court decisions since 1893 can be found on the Findlaw website. The address is:

Federal circuit court opinions and those of special federal courts such as Tax Court, Veteran’s Appeals and Patent Court among others can be accessed through Findlaw using the menu page below:

Illinois Appellate and Supreme courts decisions are available from 1996 to the present only through the Illinois State website. You may access the decisions directly at:

Contains basic information about copyrighting materials, copyright law, and copyright-related publications. Application forms for copyrighting all classes of materials are available.

Information about immigration and naturalization laws and procedures as well as copies of important forms.

Contains basic information on how to apply for a patent or trademark along with application forms.