State Administrative Department Research Articles

Neal-Schuman guide to finding legal and regulatory information on the Internet

Looking for a resource that will help you inexpensively and quickly find answers to common and challenging legal questions, research judicial opinions and precedents, and access the text of just-passed legislation? This guide provides information about the spectrum of legal and regulatory information available on the Internet, tells how to find each resource listed, and provides a critical analysis of each. Attorneys, information professionals, students and researchers can turn to this resource for guidance through the maze of legal Internet resources at the federal, state and local levels. The directory identifies and reviews over 900 Internet sites containing: Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals decisions and opinions, and a state-by-state listing of sources for state supreme court and appellate court decisions; an overview of the GPO access and the metaindexes that locate government information; extensive listings for federal and state legislative information (including federal, state and local laws and codes, and state and national congressional information); federal and state administrative department, regulatory and executive branch information resources (such as Presidential documents, Census Bureau data, US Patent and Trademark Archives information, IRS forms, regulations and publications, and Consumer Products Safety Commission studies). Reference sources are included on the Internet for legal and topical law (including legal encyclopaedias, citation manuals and dictionaries, congressional and government directories, law school, law firm and corporate sites, online law journals, and the top law sites for many specializations); international legal information resources (such as guides to foreign and international law, international and multilateral organizations, and the best international Listservs); and Chandler's Best Bets - a selective listing of the most useful legal and regulatory sources on the Internet in each category. Each review of a resource or site contains a summary of what can be found, the author or creating agency, how it is arranged, and a comparison with other resources. Additional chapters offer a general profile of legal information sources and on the Internet, including information on over 30 Internet guides and metaindexes that access legal information, how they work, and how to select the best tools for legal queries.

Reorganization of the State Administrative Departments

Reorganization of the State Administrative Departments

Direct Primaries in Missouri

Missourians have been conservative in their political ideas, and have been slow to adopt innovations in their political institutions The first Constitution of 1820 incorporated those political ideas and institutions which had been tested by the older states, and excluded the new democratic doctrines of popular election and rotation in office, which were being agitated, and were just beginning to secure recognition in some of the states. The heads of the state administrative departments did not become elective until 1851, while the judiciary held during good behavior until 1849, and were not chosen by popular election until 1851. While the system of voting by ballot was introduced during the Territorial Period, it was abandoned in 1822 in favor of the viva voce system, which continued to be the general method until 1863, though the ballot system had been introduced in a number of counties by special acts beginning in 1845. Even to this day there is retained the provision for numbering a ballot to correspond with the number opposite the name of the voter in the poll book, so that it is impossible to have perfect secrecy of the ballot.