Finding materials on Ethics

Helpful Research Databases

Supreme Court Decisions, U.S. Law and Regulations

If you are researching key questions that deal with First Amendment rights, censorship, copyright, obscenity or other aspects of telecommunications, you should become familiar with the laws and regulations that define them in the United States. Use government documents to locate court case decisions, United States laws, and how that law is codified and put into practice. Many documents are online but sometimes it is easier to use the print materials. They help set information in its overall context.

Each branch of the federal government has a hand in creating laws and the regulations and court decisions that determine how they are carried out.

Legislative Branch:
THOMAS: Find what out what bills are being discussed in Congress. Has it become law or is it stuck in a committee? The full text of bills is online from 1989 to the present. For example see: Network Neutrality Act of 2006 (H.R.5273).

U.S. Code: Search the Laws of the United States. Depending on how long ago the law was enacted, you may wish to check and see it has been amended or changed. For example: Obscenity: Title 18 section 1461-1470. (SUDOC no. Y 1.2/5:2000)

Executive Branch:
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR): Contains the rules made by federal agencies and executive departments. The CFR is the practical working out of the U.S. Code and is kept up-to-date by the Federal Register. You may be interested in sections: 16: Commerical Practices (Federal Trade Commission), 37: Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights or 47: Telecommunication. (SUDOC no. AE 2. 106/3: )

Judicial Branch:
FindLaw: FindLaw is a searchable database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1893. Browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full text. (SUDOC no. JU 6.8: ) For example: Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969) You can also search Supreme Court decisions by topic.

For more help on using government documents, see the Guide for finding information on U.S. laws.

Searching WebCat

Browsing the Library's Collection

• BJ1-1725 (4th floor) - Materials on ethics in general
• P94 (5th floor) - Ethics in communication and mass media
• PN4756 (5th floor) - Journalism and ethics or religion
• PN4888.E8 (5th floor) - Ethics of journalism