Searching for Policy Resources
California Legislative Information
Search by keywords or bill number to find state legislation about your topic. You can search the current or past sessions. Included in this database are the following:
- Status and history
- Votes
- Analysis (this analysis is used by legislators to make voting decisions, so it would be considered a primary source)
- Bill text
Congress.gov. Congress.gov includes legislative information from the U.S. Congress. Search by keywords or bill number to find federal legislation about your topic. You can search the current or past sessions. When you find a bill, click on "Bill Summary & Status" for the following:
- Text of Legislation
- Major Congressional Actions - this is where you will find the voting records, and passage/failure
- Related Bills
- Cosponsors
The best source for finding court cases is the Westlaw database.
- You can search for a case by the name of the case from the main search screen.
- You can search by the citation from the main search screen (347 U.S. 475).
- OR, you can browse cases. You can retrieve cases in several ways from the Browse section:
- Click "Cases" from the main page to display the Cases page, which organizes cases under Federal Cases by Court, Federal Cases by Circuit, Cases by State, Cases by U.S. Territory, and Cases by Topic.
- From there, click the "Federal Materials" tab to retrieve U.S. Supreme Court cases or cases from federal courts in a specific circuit or state.
- Or, click the State Materials tab to view a list of states. Click a state name to retrieve cases from state or federal courts in that stat.
- Public Policy Institute of CaliforniaThe mission of PPIC is to inform and improve public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research.
- California Research BureauThe CRB provides nonpartisan research services to the Governor and his staff, to both houses of the Legislature, and to other elected State officials.
- Policy ArchiveA freely available archive for public policy research including reports, charts, videos and white papers.
- Congressional Reports via Congressional Research ServiceThe Congressional Research Service, a component of the Library of Congress, conducts research and analysis for Congress on a broad range of national policy issues.
- ProCon.orgAn independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit Web site that offers pros and cons of controversial issues. The site aims to "promote critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting research on controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, and primarily pro-con format."
- Evidence-Based Practice Resources from the Social Work Policy InstituteSeeks to promote the integration of evidence-based mental health treatments into social work education and research.
- Top 50 Think TanksThis guide from Penn State Libraries provides a list of United States think tanks as well as the top think tanks in other parts of the world.