Media Law Guide

Don't be intimidated: anyone can become familiar enough with the law to make a difference.

We've assembled an array of links on a wide variety of legal subjects.

We will continue to update this information and appreciate any ideas you have in regard to additional content.

Please contact us at foi@missouri.edu with any recommendations.

Topics include:

• Burning issues
• Supreme Court rules
• Making a federal case out of it
• Making a state case out of it
• Legal research and writing
• Help for sale

Burning issues

• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press -- The Reporters Committee site has several excellent resources about press issues including: 
  • Open Government Guide -- about open records laws nationwide
  • Can We Tape? -- on legalities of tape recording phone calls
  • Reporter's Privilege Compendium -- on shield laws and reporter's privilege
• Media Center at New York Law School has a voluminous online library of statutes, cases and news, with a focus on telecommunications and FCC regulation.
• Society for Professional Journalists
• First Amendment Center
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Student Press Law Center
• Media Law Resource Center
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Center for Democracy & Technology
• "Freedom of Speech in the United States" by Thomas L. Tedford is an online version of an academic textbook by this University of North Carolina professor. Tedford's abbreviated digital version contains classic free speech and free press documents and court decisions, from Magna Carta to ACLU v. Reno.

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Supreme Court rules

• Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School -- full-text cases since May 1990; 610 most important historical cases. 
• Findlaw Supreme Court Database -- FindLaw's searchable database of the Supreme Court decisions since 1893 
• The Oyez Project -- U.S. Supreme Court case summaries, oral arguments, and multimedia. Full-text of the cases are viewable at the Findlaw site.

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Making a federal case out of it

• Georgetown Law Library -- FOIA Resources
• Findlaw: U.S. Circuit Court Opinions
• LII at Cornell Law School: U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals Search
• Federal Court Locator (Villanova School of Law)
• More resources available at:
  • Findlaw
  • The Federal Judiciary home page

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Making a state case out of it

• Findlaw's State Cases & Codes
• Internet Legal Research Group - State Supreme and Appellate Courts
• Lexis-Nexis's State Resource Center
• National Center for State Courts

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Legal research and writing

• Media Law Reporter -- the only weekly reporting service focusing exclusively on federal and state media law, easily searchable on the Web or in print.
• FindLaw -- finding lawyers and legal information/li>
• Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School -- links not only to court cases, but also to laws and regulations 
• American Law Sources Online (ALSO!) -- easy-to-use meta-law site, containing federal and states cases, other links to federal and state laws. 
• Georgia State Univ. Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research
• Internet Legal Research Group
• Nolo.com -- help with legal research
• LII-Cornell -- introduction to basic legal citation

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Help for sale

• PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) -- the Federal Judiciary's centralized registration, billing, and technical support center for electronic access to U.S. District, Bankruptcy, and Appellate court records.
• LexisNexis® Matthew Bender® -- a leading provider of analytical legal information in print and CD-ROM formats, and via the Internet
• Lexis-Nexis XChange -- Lexis-Nexis also offers individual cite and Shepardized searches. 
• Versus Law -- offers three different online legal research plans
• Westlaw

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• National Freedom of Information Coalition
• Missouri School of Journalism
• 101 A Reynolds Journalism Institute
• University of Missouri
• Columbia, MO 65211
• Phone -- 573.882.5736
• Fax -- 573.884.6204
• daviscn@missouri.edu