Electronic Resource of the Month: Session Laws Library on HeinOnline

This week we are combining HeinOnline collections and the Legislative Session! All HeinOnline resources can be accessed through http://libguides.law.loyno.edu/az.php. The collections are available to Loyola Law faculty and students, and it can be accessed while connected to the Loyola internet. Check back each month for updates!


The HeinOnline Session Laws Library gives Loyola students and faculty access to:

1. Legislation for all 50 states, Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and the D.C. Register from inception to present day
2. Compilations of historical state statues
3. Historical statutes and/or acts for the US, Canada, Bahamas, and Australia
4. Collection of various related historical documents, including Laws of the Northwest Territory and many colonial compilations.

The coverage for each depends on the particular resource.

Louisiana acts from 1804-2012 are included, which also covers the Territory of Louisiana (1804-1812).

There are also many historical compilations of laws, official texts and annotations, including:

• 1808 Digest
• 1825 Civil Code
• 1856 Revised Statutes
• 1870 Digest

Select “State Statues” on the top menu to search these collections.

Although we have many of these items in print, HeinOnline provides the convenience of electronic searching. Select “Advanced Search” at the top of the page, and you can narrow by state, collection, years – there’s even a full text search for all documents.

Louisiana Constitutional Materials

Louisiana is on its tenth Constitution since 1812 and had a limited constitutional convention as recently as 1992. Those who vote in Louisiana are also aware that we amend the state constitution frequently. As of 2003 there were 111 amendments to the most recent 1974 Constitution, and there have been several amendment votes since that time. For a full listing, see Voting on Louisiana Proposed Constitutional Amendments 1978-2015, Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, http://www.parlouisiana.com/explore.cfm/conhistory/ (last visited Mar. 3, 3016).

Thanks to this long history, the Law Library has compiled a large selection of LA constitutional documents. We have copies of the majority of the constitutions, compilations that compare versions, delegate proposals, records for the constitutional conventions in 1921, 1973, and 1992, and more. The records of the conventions may include calendars, journals, and transcripts. Here you can see just of bit of what we have on the shelves.

Print Resource of the Month – State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts: A Compilation of Enacted and Recently Proposed Legislation

This book should be used by anyone with an interest in religious freedom questions, issues in corporate personality, and LGBT rights. This book compiles all current state religious freedom acts. A table of documents lists where legislative intent or other legislative history materials may be found (though admittedly, there are not many). The editor notes where acts failed to pass and provides a bibliography that will be helpful for general research.

  

Recent interest in religious freedom restoration laws has its origins in the early 1990s with the passage of the federal Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. After the Supreme Court in 1997 found that the Act applied only to the federal government in City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507 (1997), states began adopting these types of laws. Interest in this matter has skyrocketed since Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014), in which the Supreme Court held that a for-profit corporation could hold religious beliefs. More recently, these acts have made headlines in relation to LGBT issues and the inclusion of same-sex couples in the right to marry in the wake of Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584 (2015).

State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts: A Compilation of Enacted and Recently Proposed Legislation (William H. Manz ed., 2015). KF 4783 .Z95 S73