Pathfinder for Research of Alcohol Laws in the U.S.

Compiled by Colette LaFond, J.D.

I. Primary Sources

A. THE CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS

• Under the 21st Amendment, law concerning alcoholic beverages is primarily controlled by the states. Each state has statutes that govern the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages within the state. Most states also have statutory provisions regarding the scope of civil liability for a person selling or serving alcoholic beverages. Moreover, all states have alcohol beverage control agencies that promulgate rules and regulations concerning alcohol control.
• The structure and content of state law regarding alcoholic beverages can be maddeningly inconsistent from state to state -- a legacy of the post-prohibition grant of state control by the 21st Amendment. Therefore, it is unwise to make any assumptions about a given state's alcohol laws based on the laws of its neighbors. Each state's alcohol laws must be searched on its own terms. This is an area where local custom still deeply informs the law.
• All states have enacted some sort of Liquor Act that contains statutes providing for state control over the distribution, sale, and consumption of alcohol. In addition to these acts, however, alcohol law may also be found in other areas, such as those parts of the code dealing with taxation and revenue (since almost all states tax alcoholic beverages separately from and in addition to the general retail tax) and motor vehicles (for laws related to drunken driving).
• In addition, each state also has administrative law regulating alcohol. Each state's alcoholic beverage control agency (the agency's name may vary) promulgates rules that regulate the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages through licensure or other regulatory mechanisms. Much of the law that directly affects retailers and consumers of alcohol is found in these state rules.
• Finally, alcohol is further regulated on the local level. Most states also empower local units of government, such as counties and municipalities, to exercise direct control over alcohol through local ordinances. In many states, low alcoholic beverages are controlled solely on the local level.

Given this concentration of alcohol law in the state and local governments, researching state law brings its own particular challenges. One of the greatest challenges may be simply gaining access to all the relevant state and local materials. Researching laws of states and localities that are remote from the particular law library a researcher is using may be particularly difficult. While most law libraries contain materials from their own and neighboring states, materials from other states are often lacking. Local law, except from the largest urban centers of the state, are almost always inaccessible except by direct contact with the particular county or municipal office that handles local alcoholic beverage law.

Moreover, even if the state and local materials are at hand, the comprehensiveness and organization of these materials varies widely from state to state, and locality to locality. In some cases, only one or two individuals in a given locality is even capable of finding the necessary resources, and the researcher will have to take time to cultivate a working relationship with these individuals.

2) State Statutes

a. Finding current statutes

Every state organizes its statutes by subject in its state code. All states have an annotated version of their code; some have unannotated versions as well.

The unannotated codes generally provide only the statutory text and the history line for each statutory provision. For researching purposes, the annotated versions are better, because they also provide other research tools such as cross references to related statutes and case law, and to various secondary resources. Those state codes annotated by West contain references to the West key system as well.
(State codes published by West at this writing include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin.)

State codes are updated by various means. In most states, the main volumes are published in hardback, and are updated by pocket parts. But some states use other methods: in some cases, the whole code is published in softbound volumes that come out yearly (as in Montana); in other cases, the statutes are kept in ring binders that permit continuous updating (as in Alaska). In addition to the yearly updates, most, but not all states publish paper copies of slip laws or other updating pamphlets. Information on the availability these state slip laws may be found in the State Legislative Sourcebook (see the part on State Specific Research Guides in the Legal and Governmental Resources section below).

Shepards state citators permit the researcher to easily update all state statutes. Because many statutes are only supplemented yearly, Shepards can provide more recent information on the current status of the statute and court decisions that interpret it. It also provides a reliable checklist of all relevant legislative actions, court decisions that have affected the statute over time, as well as some citations to legal periodicals and annotations that cite the particular statute. In-state decisions dealing with federal constitutional or statutory issues are also cited.

In Minnesota, for example -
Minnesota has two codified versions of its statutes: the unannotated Minnesota Statutes (the official version, published by the State of Minnesota) and Minnesota Statutes Annotated (M.S.A.) (an unofficial version published by West). In both versions, most alcohol law is found in ch. 340A, entitled "Liquor Act", but is indexed under the entry "Alcoholic Beverages."

Minnesota Statutes (Revisor of Statutes, St. Paul, MN)

Published for each biennium, the official Minnesota Statutes provides little current information beyond the statutory text and historical line. It does, however, include several useful tables (located in the final volume of the collection): of Local Special Acts, of the Allocation of Acts (listing enactments published for the first time in that particular edition); of the Organizations and Structure of State Government (providing length of terms of office for state officials and the citations to laws providing for those offices); of Internal Cross References (linking statutory provisions that cite other statutes); and of Rules (linking statutory sections to rules and regulations). The official statutes are also indexed by subject.

Minnesota Statutes Annotated (MSA) (West, St. Paul, MN)

Minnesota Statutes Annotated (MSA), on the other hand, provides a number of useful annotations to the statutory text and history line. Annotations include extensive historical and statutory notes, cross references to related statutory provisions, library references to other publications and the key system by West, law review commentaries and notes of decisions. While the notes of decisions section is not comprehensive, it is fairly extensive. The statutes are updated by pocket parts. The MSA has a multivolume index at the end of the code, as well as indexes at the end of each volume. The statutes are updated by pocket parts.

In Minnesota
The bulk of alcohol law in Minnesota is found in the "Liquor Act" codified as §340A. This section covers law related to the manufacturing, importing, wholesale, and retail sale of alcoholic beverages under licenses regulated by the Department of Public Safety. It also includes statutes regarding the consumption of alcohol, civil liability related to serving alcoholic beverages, as well as penalties for violations of these laws. Statutes related to driving while intoxicated are codified with the transportation statutes, from §169.121 to §169.1261. Taxation of alcoholic beverages is covered by §§297C.01 to 297C.13.

-If you have only the popular name of an act:

States vary on whether and how they index according to popular name. For any state, the Shepards Acts and Cases by Popular Names: Federal and State may be used. It contains popular name references to all the states and federal statutes. If that is not available, the Shepards Citations for each state also has a "Table of Acts by Popular Names or Short Titles"; however, this may not be as current as the Shepards Acts and Cases. There also may be other finding

- In Minnesota
Citations to statutes by popular name are found in the Minnesota Statutes and Minnesota Statutes Annotated index, under the heading "Popular Names, Acts by."

b) Finding Past Versions of a Statute

Each state also publishes all acts of its Legislature in the form of session laws. Every time the State Legislature creates or amends a statute through a legislative act, it publishes a permanent record of that creation or change in its session laws. Therefore, the state's session laws may be used to research the initial and subsequent content of state statutes over time, as well as the specific dates at which the statute or its amendment went into effect.

Citations to the session laws are included in the history lines at the end of each statutory provision published in the state codes (whether annotated or unannotated). By looking up the citations provided, a researcher can reconstruct the content of any statutory provision at any given point in time.

Most of the states' session laws are accessible in larger legal collections, either in hard copy or, for session laws created after 1980 or so, on microfiche. Generally, session laws are arranged chronologically. However specific arrangements vary from state to state. At the end of the volumes for each legislative session, there are often some useful finding tools such as subject indexes to the acts and parallel reference tables to the state code. As usual, the type and comprehensiveness of any finding tools differs from state to state.

To determine when the provisions of a specific session law went in effect, you cannot rely on the date of final passage. There is often a time lag between when the governor signs a bill to become law and when the provisions of the law go into effect. Therefore the effective date must be determined separately from the date of passage.

Generally, each state has two means to arrive at an effective date for legislation. First, it may be provided for specifically in the act, often with language specifying that there is an "emergency" and therefore the legislation will become effective immediately upon passage, or at a date soon after passage. Second, if there is no language regarding the effective date in the act itself, then a general formula for figuring the effective date, provided for by state law (by statute or constitution), applies.

In some states, the law provides that the effective date occur a set number of days after the governor signs the particular bill. In other states, state law provides that the effective date occur a set number of days after the final day of the session. In yet other states, all statutes passed during the session go into effect on a particular date specifically set out in the statute. Therefore, determining the precise effective date of an act may require additional information and search steps beyond that required for simply finding the particular act.

In Minnesota:
Minnesota session laws, entitled Laws of Minnesota, are organized in chronological fashion for each legislative biennium and are easy to use. In hard copy, each year is bound in separate volumes, although the numbering of the chapters (of the specific acts) and the pages are consecutive through both years of the legislative biennium (so the enumeration of chapters of the even-numbered years continue where they left off at the end of the previous odd year). A similar arrangement holds in the microfiche versions.

At the end of the final volume of each biennium are several tables pertaining to the acts passed during that biennium: of prior session laws amended or repealed; of the Minnesota Statutes that have been newly enacted, amended or repealed; of the Senate and House Files numbers of each act passed; of vetoed items; and of special laws that relate to local government units. In addition, there is an extensive subject index to all acts and resolutions passed during the biennium.

Effective dates, if specific to the particular piece of legislation are found in the last section the of the act. Otherwise, the general effective date applies, which, under MSA §645.02, is August 1 following final enactment.

In Minnesota:
In the Minnesota Statutes Annotated, the historical line constitutes a discrete section following the text of the statute. It includes many of the effective dates of the changes since the last publication of the statute.

The notes following the historical line are also worth attention: they provide short descriptions of the amendments since the last publication, citations to relevant law review commentaries, and references to related resources published by West.

- If you have a subject and year of a change, but no citation:

Find the relevant year's volumes of the published session laws and look up your subject in the subject index in the final volume. Most, but not all, states provide subject indexes to their session laws. Otherwise, you must find the current statutory provision on that subject and check the history line for an applicable citation. This may not work, however, if the provision you are seeking has been repealed and there is no record of it in the current code.

In Minnesota:
Minnesota session laws are indexed by subject. Look in the end of the last volume of each two year set covering the biennium.

c. Legislative History

Researching other legislative materials related to the passage of a particular act on the state level is generally difficult. The materials may no longer exist, or if they do, they often are not well organized or indexed, and are almost certainly not available in collections outside of the specific state in which they were generated. The best starting point is to directly contact the legislative library of the relevant state.

In Minnesota:

Materials related to past legislation are not readily accessible in Minnesota. Legislative committees tape record all committee hearings; however, they do not regularly transcribe these tapes, and the quality of the recordings can be quite bad. Fortunately, the reference librarians at the Minnesota Legislative Library are very helpful in providing information on how to find what materials exist.

2. Finding State Administrative Materials

a. Finding current rules and regulations

Most of the rules and regulations dealing with alcohol are promulgated by the state Alcoholic Beverage Control agencies (ABCs). Although the specific names may differ from state to state, all these agencies are delegated the authority to regulate the movement and sale of alcoholic beverages within the state. In addition, certain other agencies may promulgate rules relating to other particular aspects of alcohol law. For example, the state department of Revenue may issue regulations regarding the taxation of alcoholic beverages, while the state department of Transportation may regulate criminal laws related to drunken driving.

Since regulatory law is often organized by department rather than subject, it is likely that, though the ABC regulations contain the bulk of alcohol administrative law, some important alcohol regulations will be located elsewhere. The Book of the States provides useful summary information about the structure, functions and practices of the various administrative units in each of the state, and may be used to find out where specific alcohol-related regulations are promulgated. See section on secondary resources below.

States also vary widely as to what sort of regulatory materials they publish. Many states publish administrative codes and registers based on the federal system described below. However, some states do not publish either. To find out which regulatory materials are available for particular states, see BNA's Directory of State Administrative Codes and Register or look to the relevant state legal research guides. See the section on secondary resources above for information on other resources that are useful for ascertaining the structure, identity and functions of various state governmental units.

States often publish and distribute to licensees booklets containing the state laws that may affect their businesses. These booklets usually contain most of the regulatory law as well as state statutory provisions related to alcohol. Most state alcohol beverage control divisions will mail these out for a minimal fee.

In Minnesota:
In Minnesota, most regulatory law relating to alcohol generally is generated by the Department of Public Safety, and is found in Chapter 7515 of the Minnesota Rules. The general areas included in this chapter are: license and permit fees, duties and restrictions on manufacturing, wholesale and importing "liquor" (beverages with more than 3.2% alcohol by weight), regulations over retail licensees, municipal liquor stores, advertising, and labeling. The Liquor Control Division of the Department of Public Safety publishes a pamphlet, entitled Introduction to Minnesota Liquor Laws and Rules that provides summaries of the main areas of alcohol law with citations to the relevant legal authority.

In Minnesota:
The easiest way to find relevant administrative materials on alcohol is to used its index. Also,you may check the table of contents for Chapter 7515 of the Minnesota Rules Chapter 7515. The administrative code includes references to statutory authority and a history line.

In Minnesota:

The official Minnesota Code, Minnesota Statutes, has a cross- reference table linking statutory sections to rules and regulations. The MSA does not reference relevant administrative law.

c. Finding Past Versions of an Administrative Rule or Regulation
Past versions of state administrative law are generally not available. The best bet is to look to see if the state publishes a register. Try contacting the legislative library or particular administrative department that generated the law.

In Minnesota:

Minnesota case law can be found in two West reporters: the Minnesota Reporter, 2nd series and North Western Reporter, which reports case law from the northern Midwestern states.

- If you have a subject but no citation:

Finding state cases is aided by several important research tools, the most important of which are the state digests. Summaries of each of the states' reported decisions are published in at least one state digest, and in some states are published by more than one digest. West is the primary publisher of state digests (publishing digests for 47 states).

The summaries of law provided in its digests are simply the headnotes published at the beginning of each decision in its reporters. West organizes its digests according to the West key number system, a comprehensive system of organizing American law. It consists of a topical outline which categorizes every major point of law, and every decision published by West is fitted within one or more of these categories. West's Digests also all include a Table of Cases and an extensive subject (Descriptive Word) index.

Other publishers also produce reporters of state case law. For example, Bancroft-Whitney publishes the official California Reports and California Appellate Reports and corresponding digests; Callaghan & Co. publishes state digests for Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin (Callaghan's Illinois Digest 3d, Callaghan's Michigan Digest and Callaghan's Wisconsin Digest respectively); and Dunnell publishes Dunnell Digest of Minnesota State Law (see below). All are organized by subject, and all contain Tables of Cases.

However, the West key number system is probably the most efficient resource when doing a general subject search. Look under the West key subject "Intoxicating Liquors" (number 223), which is broken down into 331 subdivisions, each with its own key number. Lists of subjects and key numbers are found at the beginning of any West Digest. Then look up the key number in the relevant state digest to find summaries of the cases (which should be comprehensive, and are arranged in reverse chronological order). State Digests also include Tables of Cases and Descriptive Word Indexes as well. After finding a case, it should be updated by shepardizing.

The annotated state statutory code also is a good source of citations to major relevant cases. Those published by West also include key system references. Other secondary legal resources, such as law review articles, legal encyclopedias, and looseleaf services may also be good sources of case citations on specific topics. See the discussion of secondary materials below.

In Minnesota: Dunnell Minnesota Digest: An Encyclopedia of Minnesota Law , 4th ed. (Michie Butterworth, Charlottesville, Va., 1995)

Dunnell Digest is a very useful resource for finding Minnesota case law on specific subjects. This multivolume set has an extensive section entitled "Intoxicating Liquor" (over 100 pages), that discusses Minnesota cases dealing with the most aspects of alcohol law. The most accessible and readable of the two general Minnesota digests, it is written as an narrative discussion of alcohol law that is heavily footnoted with case citations. It divides the law into ten general areas: state powers over alcohol, liquor licenses, license bonds, ordinances, offenses, civil actions for injuries, criminal prosecutions, and searches, seizures and forfeitures. The Digest also contains several tables: of case names, of reverse case names, of statutes, of rules, of section numbers from the previous edition of Dunnell Digest. The set is indexed by a comprehensive subject index.

West's Minnesota Digest 2d. (West Publishing, St. Paul, MN 1988) 39 vol.

West's Minnesota Digest provides similar information on Minnesota case law, only it is not presented in narrative form. Rather it consists of a collection of headnotes to various cases arranged under the structure of the West key number system. Therefore it breaks down the subject of "Intoxicating Liquors" into the same twelve general areas and then the 331 individual key number entries that it does for the case law of all other states. In addition, the Minnesota Digest also includes references to other West legal materials, such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, the West Reporters System. Like Dunnell Digest, it includes a tables of case names and reverse case names. It also has a "Words and Phrases" section, that lists words or phrases that have been judicially defined in Minnesota cases, and provides citations to those cases. Finally, it includes an extensive subject ("Descriptive Word") index.

In Minnesota:

Local county libraries are often the best resource. For example, the Hennepin County Law Library keeps a collection of local ordinances from the Twins Cities area. The League of Minnesota Cities, located in St. Paul, is also a good resource. The researchers there are quick to respond to requests, and provide information on all sorts of local law. Currently it is in the process of building its collection of ordinances related to alcohol law.

C. FINDING FEDERAL ALCOHOL LAW

Most law regarding the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol is controlled by the individual states. However, there are federal provisions that pertain to the control of alcoholic beverages as a federal matter, particularly under powers granted to the federal government by other provisions of the constitution (such as interstate commerce), or in areas specifically under federal jurisdiction.

The main federal acts concerned with alcoholic beverages are:
-The Federal Alcohol Administration Act, at 27 USC §§201 - 207
-The Federal Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act, at 27 USC §§213 - 219a.


1. Finding Federal Statutes

Federal statutes may be found in their codified form in three different multivolume publications: the United States Code (USC); the United States Code Service (USCS.) and the United States Code Annotated (USCA). Which collection is best for research depends in part on the aims of the research. The following is a short summary of some of the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. For a more thorough discussion, see Robert Berring's Finding the Law (discussed in the Legal and Governmental Resources section below).


The United States Code (USC ): Prepared and Published under authority of Title 2, U..S. Code, section 285b, by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives. (U.S. Government Printing Office)

The USC is the official code of the United States; however, for research purposes it has the most limited usefulness of the three codes. Each statutory section in the USC contains only the text of the statute and basic historical information, so it lacks the other useful annotations provided by the USCA and the USCS.

Nevertheless, the Code does include some useful general research aids. It has an extensive index, a popular name table, and three conversion tables providing references between earlier and later versions of a given statute. The USC is updated by bound annual supplements. However, delays in publication often make the USC anywhere from eight months to two years out of date.

The United States Code Annotated (USCA ) (West Pub. St. Paul, MN)
The USCA provides extensive statutory annotations. It includes historical explanations, references to relevant administrative provisions in the Code of Federal Regulations, as well as the most comprehensive notes of court decisions pertaining to the statute. Because the USCA is published by West Publishing, it also contains references to the West key number system, to relevant treatises published by West, as well as to the Corpus Juris Secundum, also published by West.

In addition, the USCA also provides a number of finding tools. It is extensively indexed, contains a popular names table, and parallel reference table similar to the USC's. Unlike the USC, the USCA updates these tables monthly.

The USCA is updated by annual pocket parts, quarterly non-cumulative interim pamphlets and monthly advance pamphlets of United State Code Congressional and News (USCCAN)

The United States Code Service (USCS ) (Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co., Rochester, NY)

The USCS also offers extensive statutory annotations. It provides historical explanations, cross references to other statutory citations, selected court decisions, law review articles, and the most comprehensive references to related administrative provisions in the Code of Federal Regulations. Because the USCS is published by the Lawyer's Co-operative Publishing Company, it also contains references to relevant legal materials they also publish under the "Total Client Service Library" including the American Law Reviews (ALR) and American Jurisprudence.

The USCS also provides several finding tools: extensive index, popular names table, and parallel reference tables similar to the USC's and the USCA. In addition, it contains a set of parallel tables that provide references between statutes in the USCS and relevant rules in the Code of Federal Regulations. Neither the USC nor the USCA have a similar finding tool linking regulations with the relevant statutory rulemaking authority.

The USCS is updated by annual pocket parts, the quarterly Cumulative Later Case and Statutory Service, and the monthly Advance .

On-Line WESTLAW WESTLAW federal statutes are found in the {USCA] database, which contains all the annotations and finding tools found in the hardcopy version. NEXIS NEXIS federal statutes are found in the PUBLAW file of the GENFED library. This file is basically an on-line version of the USCS, and contains al the annotations and finding tools found in that hardcopy version. WWW Many WWW sites carry federal statutes on line. Two sites stands out for ease of use and searchability. The Cornell Legal Information Institute code site, at www.law.cornell.edu/uscode, permits searching by Code headings, by titles, by popular names, by citation or by full text. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel site at uscode.house.gov, permits term searching. U.S. Congress on the Internet is another useful site thomas.loc.gov which allows term searching. Suggested terms are Alcoholic Beverage Control, Prohibition, Drinking Age, Alcoholic Beverage Industry, Licensed Beverage Industry, Liquor Industry, Brewing Industry, Wine Industry, Alcoholic Beverages, Beer, Wine, Beverages, Alcohol, Alcohol Tax and Drunk Driving.

a. Finding current statutes

- If you have a particular subject related to alcohol but no citation:
The most direct way to find current Federal law on alcohol, without having a direct citation, is to use the indexes found at the end of the set of codified laws to find citations to particular provisions. Look under "intoxicating liquor" in indexes to all three codes. After finding the relevant cites, update using the necessary materials described for each code above, using Shepards United States Citations, Statutes .

On Line Do a Boolean with terms [alcohol! or intox! or liquor!] combined with other search terms specific to the particular search.

- If you have only a popular name of an act:
If you have only the popular name of an act (e.g. the Federal Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act) look to the popular name tables of any of the three versions of the code for the corresponding statutory citation (included in parentheses at the end of the entry).

- If you have only one citation and want to find other related laws:
Find the cited statute in USCS, and look for the "Cross References" section in the annotations following the statutory language.

b. Finding past versions of a statute
All acts of the United States Congress, before they appear as codified law, are published in chronological order, first individually and temporarily as slip laws, and then in bound permanent version in the Statutes at Large. So every time Congress creates or amends a statute through a legislative act, it eventually publishes a permanent record of that statute or its amendments in the Statutes at Large. Thus the Statutes at Large are the session laws of the Federal Legislature, and can be used for the same purposes as the state session laws (see discussion above).

- If you have a citation of a particular statute:
Look up the statute in any of the three codified versions, and find the history line at the end of the statute. The citations in the history line) refer to when the statute was enacted or amended and where it appears in the Statutes at Large. For example, 27 USCS §204, a statute concerned with permits to manufacture alcoholic beverages, has the following citation in its history line: "Aug. 28, 1958, P.L. 85-791, §14, 72 Stat. 946." This tells us that on August 28, 1958, this statute was amended by section 14 of Public Law 85-791 (the 791st act to pass during the 85th Congress) and it can be found in volume 72 of the Statutes at Large on page 946.

- If you have a popular name of an act:
Look up the name on the popular names tables in the USCA, the USCS or the USC, and find the corresponding citations to the Statutes at Large (are included in the same format as described in (b)(i) above). Look up text in either Statutes at Large or USCCAN.

- To find additional legislative materials related to the statute
Look up the citations to the Statutes at Large in the United States Congressional and Administrative news (USCCAN ). Note: USCCAN is divided into two parts, one containing the texts of Congressional Acts, the other containing the corresponding legislative materials.


c. Finding Legislative History
Legislative materials related to the passage of a particular act are also useful for determining legislative intent, and other factors important for historical research. USCCAN provides access to some of these materials. It often includes citations to House & Senate committee reports, dates of consideration and passage, the texts of Senate or House reports, other information obtained from hearings, and section-by-section analysis of the legislation.

2. Finding Federal Rules and Regulations

Federal administrative law on alcohol is mainly generated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, which is part of the Treasury Department.

Federal Rules are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Other private indexes to the CFR are available which provide much more effective search results: the Congressional Information Service's Federal Register Index; and USCS's index and Finding Aids to the Code of Federal Regulations. Some of the characteristics of each of each index is discussed below.

Code of Federal Regulations Index:
The CFR itself may be difficult to access, because the indexing is cumbersome and not particularly easy to use. The entries are arranged by agency, instead of subject, so to use this index you must know what agency issued the rule you are looking for. Within each agency section, however, rules are arranged by subject. Index is updated by pamphlets entitled List of CFR Sections Affected (LSA). Further updating may be achieved by looking to the individual Federal Registers , and checking the list of "CFR Parts Affected" for each month not covered by the LSA. The Federal Register is usually available several weeks after the period it covers.

CIS Federal Register Index (CIS)
The CIS Index covers all Federal Register documents except Sunshine Act notices. It contains several indexes: by subject and name, by CFR section numbers affected, and by agency docket number. In addition, it contains a calendar of effective dates for federal regulations and comment deadlines. The subject and name index is much more extensive than the CFR's: it includes general policy areas, specific subject matter, agency names, authorizing legislation, etc.

USCS Index and Finding Aids to the Code of Federal Regulations.
This contains the same information and format as the CFR Index. It is part of the USCS collection, and is shelved with the rest of the Code.

On-Line WESTLAW Provides full text coverage of the Federal register in the [FR] database, and of the Code of Federal Regulations in the [CFR] database. LEXIS Provides similar coverage in the [FEDREG] file of the [GENFED ] library, for the Federal Register, and the [CFR] file in either the [GENFED] or [CODES] libraries. WWW The Code of Federal Regulations and the Federal Register may be found in the National Archives and Records Administration at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html. As of January of 1997 the database was still being brought up to date. Title 27 was still out of date on line, but was in process of being updated. The Federal Register is at gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html. and goes back to 1994.

a. Finding current administrative law:

- If you have a particular subject related to alcohol but no citation:
Use the subject and name index in the CIS Federal Register Index.
If you only have the CFR index, start by looking at the index for Title 27 to see if your subject is listed there under "Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages." Look up relevant regulation in the bound CFR , and then update by the LSA and the "List of CFR Parts Affected in the relevant monthly Federal Registers. Then check for any judicial decisions to make sure the rule has not been challenged or construed by recent litigation, using Shepards Code to Federal Regulations Citations.


- If you have a statutory citation and want to find related administrative law:
Use the Parallel table of Authorities and Rules in the USCS, which is used to locate regulations for which statutes are listed as rulemaking authority. The USCS also provides cross references to Statutes at Large references. Note, however, the information on these tables relies on information provided by the federal agencies, and since the agencies sometimes provide information in an inconsistent manner, the tables cannot be considered comprehensive.

The USC and the USCA do not provide a similar parallel table.

b. Finding Past Versions of an Administrative law

The Federal Register functions in the Administrative Law area in the same manner as the Statutes at Large (session laws) do in statutory law: rules and regulations are published in chronological order according to the date of their promulgation. Back issues of the Federal Register can be consulted to determine when a rule or regulation first appeared and when it has been changed. In addition, the Federal Register contains materials that may not appear anywhere else, such as copies of proposed rules, agency policy statements and documents concerned with agency organization.

Citations to past versions of each regulation published in the Federal Register are found in the CFR following the text of the regulation. The citation format provides the volume number of the federal register, the page number, and the date of publication (the effective date) of the particular regulation. For example , the citation "25 FR 13831, Dec. 29, 1960" means that the regulation at issue was published in volume 25, p. 13831 of the Federal Register on Dec. 29th, 1960.

3. Finding Cases

Finding federal case law is very similar to finding state case law, except where state reporters and digests are used in state law research, federal ones apply instead. Since federal case law constitutes a relatively small part of alcohol, limited to discrete federal issues, such as alcohol advertising or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulation on producers, the following summary only briefly touches on federal case law research. For a more thorough explanation of this area of law, go to Finding The Law , by Robert C. Berring (discussed in the Secondary Resources section below).

a. Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court

There are a number of reporters for federal law. Decisions of the U.S. are reported in U.S. Reports, and two major private reporters, the United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition, published by the Lawyers Co- operative Co. and the Supreme Court Reporter, published by West.

United States Reports : Cases adjudged in the Supreme Court (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1754-)

This is the official reporter of the U.S. Supreme Court. It is organized chronologically, contains complete texts of all the supreme court decisions and has a comprehensive index. However, it takes a long time for each published volume to come out, sometimes nearly three years, and therefore is not a viable resource for most practicing attorneys.

United States Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers' Edition

Published much more rapidly than the U. S. Reports , this reporter contains the complete Supreme Court decisions with added summaries and headnotes preceding. These headnotes are reprinted in a corresponding digest, United States Supreme Court Digest, Lawyers' Edition.

In addition, this reporter also contains summaries of the briefs of counsel, and annotations of more important cases, and tables of cases cites, of cross references to the official U.S. Reports, and of federal laws cited. Like the other Lawyers Co-operative publications, it also cross-references to their Total Client-Service publications, including the USCS, ALRs, etc.

Supreme Court Reporter

West's reporter is also published more quickly than the official U.S. Reports. and includes many similar features, such as headnotes, summaries (which West calls "synopses") and cross references to West publications and the West key number system. Also included are tables: of cases reported and statutes construed, and of judicial definitions of words and phrases.

supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/. The decisions are indexed by topic, organized by date and party name and permit key word searches.

On-Line LEXIS Search in the [MEGA], [OMNI] or [COURTS] or individual circuit (e.g.{8CIR]) files in the [GENFED] library. WWW Circuit court opinion going back for a year or two may be accessed through the Cornell Legal Information Institute at www.law.cornell.edu/opinions.html.

Table of Contents

Scope

Organization