UCR      Libraries

Money in American Politics - Political Science 145

Ken Furuta & Lynne Reasoner

Campaign Funds

• OpenSecrets.org (online - http://www.opensecrets.org/)
  Searchable databases list campaign contributions by political action committees, lobbyists, and individual donors (for donations over $200). Data on campaign funds and expenditures for individual Congressmen and Senators are presented.
   
• Follow the Money (online - http://www.followthemoney.org/)
  Follow the Money database contains data on campaign contributions in state elections.
   
• See also the UCR Libraries Elections and Campaign Finance page.  Campaign finance sites are about half way down.

Supreme Court Decisions

The best place to start when looking for a court case is through the legal citation.  The Santa Clara Law Library has a quick guide (online - http://lawguides.scu.edu/legalcitation).

• Supreme Court (online - http://www.supremecourt.gov/)
  The official Supreme Court site contains the docket and opinions.  The most recent ones are called "slip opinions" until they are bound together in the US Reports.
   
• Cornell University Law School: Legal Information Institute  Decisions 1990 to present. (online - http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/)
  Supreme Court decisions from 1990 to the present. Also includes recent briefs, oral argument recordings, and press releases.
   
• SCOTUSblog (online - http://www.scotusblog.com/)
  Unofficial site with information and documents about U.S. Supreme Court cases from 2007 to present. Links from each case to briefs, decisions, oral arguments, media/ blog coverage.  Although the site has a search box, it is probably faster to search using Google.
   
• For other information, such as Congressional Research Service reports, see the UCR Libraries Public Policy page.

Public Policy

• Congressional Research Service
      The Congressional Research Service (of the Library of Congress) writes nonpartisan analyses of public policy issues, especially of legislative proposals, for use by Congress.  The reports can be in multiple databases, so be sure to check them all. 

Statements & News

• CQ Weekly (Gov Pubs Ref - JK1, C66)
  National Journal (Gov Pub Ref - JK1, N37)
       Both titles cover politics in a nonpartisan manner.  The database, Academic Search Complete contains selected articles from both. Add the magazine's title (National Journal or CQ Weekly) in the "Publication" box in the lower part of the screen to focus the results.
  
• Academic via LexisNexis 
       Academic contains full text articles from newspapers, broadcast transcripts, and more.  To search newspapers from your state, select, "News" on the left navigation bar, then "All News."
  
• Congressional via LexisNexis 
      The Political News section of the Congressional database contains full text articles from newspapers that cover the national political arena (the "A" section of the Washington Post, The Hill, and Roll Call).
  
• Access World News
      Access World News is full text and covers a different collection of newspapers than Academic.
  
• Congressional Record (online - http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/advanced/advsearchpage.action)
       The Congressional record is an edited transcript of statements made on the floor of the US House & Senate.  Limit your search by date.

Scholarly Articles

• Law review articles are available on Westlaw and Academic (LexisNexis).  To access the databases, see the Law section of the Government Publications databases page.
  • Although both contain the full text of court opinions and Law Review articles, WestLaw is more complete.
  • To access WestLaw from off campus, first allow popups for their site and connect through the Anyconnect VPN client software.
     
• JSTOR - Note, in general the most recent 3-5 years worth of articles are not included.
• PAIS
      Journal articles, government publications and other materials about political science and public policy.

(http://library.ucr.edu/?view=help/guides/posc_145.html)