Congressional Research Service provides material "produced by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for the United States Congress. By law, CRS works exclusively for Congress, providing timely, objective, and authoritative research and analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of political party affiliation." Use the keyword search feature to find material about your topic. Alternatively, to view a full list of CRS material, leave the search bar empty and click: Search. The filters on the left side of the page can be used to narrow down the results.
CRS indexes thousands of reports. CRS reports "provide Congress with both anticipatory and on-demand research and analysis to support their legislative, oversight, and representational duties. All reports adhere to the core values of CRS; they are authoritative, objective and nonpartisan.” Below are some recent examples:
Valerie C. Brannon, Lindke v. Freed and Government Officials’ Use of Social Media (Apr. 9, 2024)
Victoria L. Killion, Freedom of Speech: An Overview (Mar. 29, 2024) + The First Amendment: Categories of Speech (Mar. 28, 2024)
Brandon J. Murrill, The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Presidential Inability, Part 1: Introduction (Mar. 28, 2024) - first post in a 7-part series
Ben Leubsdorf, Proposals to Amend the U.S. Constitution: Fact Sheet (Mar. 14, 2024)
Laura Deal, State Laws Restricting or Prohibiting Abortion (updated Jan. 22, 2024)
Dave S. Sidhu, Current Second Amendment Cases Before the Supreme Court (Jan. 18, 2024)
Jennifer K. Elsea, L. Paige Whitaker & Juria L. Jones, Disqualification of a Candidate for the Presidency, Part I: Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment as It Applies to the Presidency (Jan. 9, 2024) + Disqualification of a Candidate for the Presidency, Part II: Examining Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment as It Applies to Ballot Access (updated Jan. 10, 2024)
Milan N. Ball, The Federal Taxing Power: A Primer (Sept. 28, 2020)
ACLU is a nonprofit organization that describes itself as "the nation’s premier defender of the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution." ACLU's lawyers (and other attorneys who assist them) "handle thousands of cases each year on behalf of clients whose rights have been violated." ACLU provides issue-focused pages of resources on:
Issue-focused pages include information about court cases and links to selected case documents.
At Liberty weekly podcasts include:
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law describes itself as "a nonpartisan law and policy institute" that "strive[s] to uphold the values of democracy."
2024 press release:
Recent analysis:
Brennan Center for Justice Publications at NYU School of Law (HeinOnline)
The Center for Constitutional Rights states it “is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.” It works through "cutting-edge litigation, advocacy and strategic communications."
This Center's issue pages list cases, news, opinions and resources. Some of the issues this Center addresses are:
Center for Reproductive Rights describes itself as "a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person." This Center provides issue pages on:
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies describes itself as "a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order." It provides commentary on topics such as:
It also offers summaries and commentary on specific cases including:
A list cases is available here, and the filters on the right side of the page can be used to narrow down these cases.
The Free Speech Project at Georgetown University describes itself as "an independent, nonpartisan initiative working to assess the condition of Free Speech in the United States today."
The Free Speech Tracker maps challenges to free speech across the United States. Themes (such as Hate Speech, Legal Action and Press) can be selected to narrow down the entries on the tracker.
The Free Speech Project creates Free Speech Modules. These are collections of resources relating to specific topics, such as:
The National Constitution Center describes itself as "a private, nonprofit organization" that "serves as America’s leading platform for constitutional education and debate."
The News & Debate page has blog posts, podcasts, town hall videos, and educational videos about historical and modern constitutional issues.
In the Media Library, use the search bar or the filters on the left side of the page to narrow down the topics. There is also a Founders' Library of "primary texts that span American history."
Special projects at the National Constitution Center:
Open Society Justice Initiative states it is "an operational program of the Open Society Foundations. Rather than giving grants, the Justice Initiative’s lawyers, advocates, and staff pursue legal work that supports the broader mission and values of Open Society." "The Open Society Justice Initiative uses litigation, advocacy, and legal empowerment to promote and defend justice and human rights."
Note: Vendor HeinOnline provides a Social Justice Suite of five databases:
Pew Research Center states it is "a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world." Pew's work includes "public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research." Pew states: "We do not take policy positions." There are research topic pages on:
A full list of research topics can be found here.
Data & Statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (a law enforcement agency in the United States Department of Justice) - Provides data about firearms tracing, firearms manufacturing and exporting, firearms sales, firearms theft/loss, and additional topics.
Gun Violence Archive states this site is “an online archive of gun violence incidents collected from over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources daily in an effort to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence. GVA is an independent data collection and research group with no affiliation with any advocacy organization.”
Open Secrets states: “Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, OpenSecrets is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy.” This site documents money given to politicians from both gun control advocacy groups and gun rights advocacy groups.
See: