Law -- Federal Court Opinion

The following databases are available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account:

• Westlaw Campus
  Full coverage of U.S. Supreme Court, courts of appeals, former circuit courts, district courts, bankruptcy courts, former Court of Claims, Court of Federal Claims, Tax Court, related federal and territorial courts and military courts.

  • Choose All Federal Cases from the database list
  • OR, to narrow the range of cases being searched
    • Choose "Content List" link in upper left hand menu
    • Choose Cases
    • Then select from list to specify court you would like to search

• LexisNexis
  Full coverage from the inception of the U.S. Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, Customs and Patent Appeals, Court of International Trade, Court of Veteran Appeals, Tax Courts, Bankruptcy Courts, Customs Courts, Commerce Courts, and Military Courts.

  • Select the Legal tab in the upper left corner
  • Choose Federal and State Cases from the left-hand menu
  • Use the drop down sources menu to restrict the court opinions being searched

• U.S. District Courts

• U.S. Bankruptcy Courts

• U.S. Tax Court

  • Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure

• Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
  Judicially independent, although it is located (for administrative purposes only) in the Department of Defense of Defense, "the Court exercises jurisdiction to review court-martial cases on direct appellate review, entertains and acts on petitions for extraordinary relief, writ appeal petitions (in which a Court of Criminal Appeals has acted on a petition for extraordinary relief), and petitions for review of decisions of the Courts of Criminal Appeals in cases in which the United States has exercised its right to appeal certain rulings of a military judge during the course of a court-martial trial. In such cases, further review by the Supreme Court of the United States on petition for certiorari is limited to those instances in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has granted relief.

• United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
  This Court can review final decisions of the Board of Veterans Appeals. Parties may appeal from a decision of the Court to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and, thereafter, may seek review in the Supreme Court of the United States.