John J. Ross - William C. Blakley Law Library
Arizona State University College of Law

Finding Federal Agency Decisions & Orders By Donna Larson-Bennett / Connie Strittmatter

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Official Reports of Agency Decisions, Opinions, and Orders
• List of Agencies

Introduction

Authorized by law and issued by a regulatory agency, administrative "decisions" adjudicate controversies arising out of the violation or interpretation of statutes and regulations. "Opinions" arise from a question regarding a contemplated action and advise on the interpretation of statutes and regulations. "Orders" refer to final actions or dispositions regarding an agency action. In addition to specific acts of Congress creating an adjudicatory body for a regulatory agency, like the Tax Court or the Federal Communications Commission, the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (5 USC §551 et.seq.) provides for the use of administrative law judges to hear and decide regulatory disputes at the initial level, with review by the chief administrative officer of the regulatory agency.

No one publication indexes or reports administrative decisions, opinions or orders; however, two types of reports provide access: official reports issued by a regulatory agency and unofficial reports including reporters, looseleaf services and serial publications usually published by commercial organizations. Official reports are described below. To find unofficial reports, use a subject search of the library catalog to see if the library owns any services that deal with the area of law and/or consult legal research guides for the subject area of interest.

Official Reports of Agency Decisions, Opinions and Orders

Most of the official reports in this library are shelved in the Government Documents Collection in compact shelving on the first floor. They are organized by Superintendent of Documents Classification number [SuDocs No.]. There is no set format, frequency or method of publication used by government agencies to report these regulatory actions. Some agencies have long-standing reporters that date back to the beginning of the regulatory activity; some do not print any report but require interested parties to call and request each item. Many agencies are now putting their material on the Internet.

To find if an official reporter exists for a regulatory agency, use the ASU Online Catalog. Within the online catalog, use a keyword search to locate the item needed. If you find a record in the catalog, but no call number is given, select "MARC Record" from the options and find the 086 field. The 086 field gives the SuDocs No. Although the Law Library does not have all the government publications indexed in the online catalog, the call numbers given are the same as the ones used by this library in the Government Documents Collection. Another alternative to the online catalog is to search the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. This database can be accessed by selecting "Indexes" from the ASU library’s homepage http://www.asu.edu/lib/ and typing in the above name.

Government information locators available on the Internet are at the following addresses:

• Federal Web Locator http://www.infoctr.edu/fwl/
• Government Resources on the Web http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/govweb.html
• FedWorld Information Network http://www.fedworld.gov/#usgovt
• Federal Administrative Decisions and Other Actions http://www.law.virginia.edu/admindec

Shepard’s United States Administrative Citations [KF153.2.S5, 1996, located on the Shepard’s index table, Core Collection reading room] provides a compilation of citations to decisions and orders of various federal administrative departments, courts, boards and commissions as reported in the publication of its own respective reporter and by the federal courts and state courts.

A fairly comprehensive list of administrative reports appears in: Cohen, Morris L. et al., How to Find the Law. 9th ed. (1989), App. D, "Sources of Federal Regulatory Agency Rules, Regulations and Adjudications." RESERVE KF240.C5381989.

List of Agencies

User-friendly URL: www.law.asu.edu/library/federalagency