LibGuides: Chicana(o) & Latina(o) Studies: CLS 3770 --Environmental Justice: Laws and Legislation

California State Legislature

The California State Legislature consists of two houses, the Assembly (80 members), and the Senate (40 members). Members of each house are elected by the people in the districts they represent and are held to term limits.

California Bill Serach (1999-Present)
Search for bills by number, year, house, or within the fill text. Includes analysis written by staff on how the bill will change law, who supports it, budget concerns, and arguments for and against.
California Bill Search (1993-1999)
The full text of bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments, and their status, history, votes, analyses, and veto messages are available. Includes analysis written by staff on how the bill will change law, who supports it, budget concerns, and arguments for and against.
California State Assembly Journals (1849-2011)
Archived PDFs of the proceedings of the California State Assembly.
California State Assembly Website
Current information about the Assembly, including members, committees, hearings, and offices. Also includes an interactive map to find your representative .
Overview of the California Legislative Process
Glossary of Legislative Terms

California Ballot Initiatives

Ballot initiatives are legislation brought either by the legislature, or citizens (after gathering the required number of signatures), and voted on in statewide general elections.

Overview of Ballot Initiative Process
UC Hastings Law Library – California Ballot Measures Database
The California Ballot Measures Database is a comprehensive, searchable source of information on California ballot propositions and initiatives from 1911 to the present.
Secretary of State- California Initiatives Resources
Includes a history of initiatives from 1912 through 2017; County, City, School District & Ballot Measure Election Results; and Reports on County and Municipal Initiative Measures.

Databases for Legal Information & Assessment

WestlawNext Campus Research This link opens in a new window
WestlawNext Campus Research provides legal materials including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and state governments.
It includes the legal encyclopedia American Jurisprudence 2nd and American Law Reports, as well as Black's Law Dictionary and Campus Research Legal Guides.

Primary legal information--Cases from courts in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and from the federal courts since 1789; reported and unpublished decisions; statutes and regulations from all 50 states and federal statues published in the United States Code Annotated (USCA); Federal regulations published in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Secondary sources--American Jurisprudence 2d, a comprehensive encyclopedia of state and federal law; American Law Reports (ALR) articles that summarize and analyze court decisions on a particular legal issue; hundreds of journals and law reviews from leading law schools
The database also covers news and business informaiton

GUIDES:
HeinOnline’s Government Politics and Law This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is a fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,400 scholarly journals, all of the world's constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase. HeinOnline’s Government, Politics and Law also includes special topical collections on topics like Religion and the Law, Women and the Law, History of International Law, and Criminal Justice.
Legal Full Text This link opens in a new window
Legal Full Text, also called Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text, part of the multi-subject OmniFile Full-text Mega, contains international coverage and access to scholarly legal articles, symposia, jurisdictional surveys, court decisions, legislation, books, book reviews, and more.
Content Includes
Full text for more than 480 periodicals — many of them peer-reviewed — dating back to 1981. Indexing of over 1,100 legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, institutes, statutes, bar association publications and university publications and 320 law reviews.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full-text articles in over 600 periodicals in sociology, psychology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science, and law.
Full text coverage begins in 1994, abstracting begins in 1984 and indexing begins in 1983

University Library

Chicana(o) & Latina(o) Studies: CLS 3770 --Environmental Justice

California State Legislature

California Ballot Initiatives

Databases for Legal Information & Assessment