Every claim traces back to its source.
A curated index of primary legal sources — statutes, rules, landmark decisions, and reference works — organized so that every proposition in this archive can be verified against its foundation.
Primary sources organized by legal domain.
This library catalogs the statutes, rules, and decisions that form the backbone of federal criminal practice. Each entry links to an authoritative source — typically the official U.S. Government Publishing Office text, the Supreme Court’s published opinion, or the relevant circuit’s electronic database.
I. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
The procedural architecture of every federal criminal case — from initial appearance through trial, verdict, and post-trial motions. The Federal Rules govern grand jury proceedings (Rule 6), discovery obligations (Rule 16), plea negotiations (Rule 11), and sentencing procedures (Rule 32). Understanding these rules is the first duty of federal defense counsel.
II. United States Sentencing Guidelines
The advisory framework that structures federal sentencing. Post-Booker, the Guidelines are no longer mandatory but remain the starting point for every federal sentencing determination. This section catalogs key Guideline provisions relevant to federal defense practice, including offense-level calculations (Chapter 2), adjustments (Chapter 3), criminal history (Chapter 4), and departures (Chapter 5).
III. Federal Habeas Corpus — 28 U.S.C. § 2255
The statutory mechanism for federal post-conviction relief. A § 2255 motion permits a federal prisoner to challenge a sentence on constitutional, jurisdictional, or other grounds. This section catalogues the statute, the rules governing § 2255 proceedings, and the key Supreme Court decisions — Strickland v. Washington, United States v. Frady, Bousley v. United States — that define the procedural landscape of federal collateral review.
IV. Civil Rights — 42 U.S.C. § 1983
The federal statute that creates a cause of action against state actors who violate federally protected rights. This section includes the statutory text, the doctrine of qualified immunity, and the Supreme Court decisions — from Monroe v. Pape through Pearson v. Callahan — that define the boundaries of § 1983 liability.
V. Fourth Amendment — Search and Seizure
The constitutional text, the exclusionary rule, and the Supreme Court decisions — Katz, Jones, Carpenter — that govern reasonable expectations of privacy and the warrant requirement in federal criminal investigations.
VI. Direct Appeals — Federal Appellate Practice
Standards of review, preservation of error, the plain error doctrine, and the rules governing direct appeals from federal district court judgments to the United States Courts of Appeals. This section includes the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure and key decisions on appellate jurisdiction and review standards.
This library expands as the archive grows. Every source linked here is publicly accessible and citable. No proprietary databases, no paywalled content, no link rot — stable references to the law as published by the United States government and the federal courts.