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The Law: Using Federal and State Codes and Cases....: For Literature

How many times have you started to write a research paper and wondered what does the law say about this?

Lorraine Hansberry and Raisin in the Sun- Example.

Situation.

You are researching the author Lorraine Hansberry and you read that her father was involved in a lawsuit over unfair housing discrimination.

See Chronology section in Cheney, Anne. Lorraine Hansberry. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Print. Twayne's United States Author Ser. 430.

By searching an online database you find the case Hansberry v. Lee.  How was this accomplished?

You read about the Fair Housing Act and you want to read this.  How do you find the wording of this act in NexisUni?

Find a Case

 

Searching by Case Name.  Click here for instructions from Nexis Uni.

            After logging into NexisUni

            Look under Guided Search for "What are you interested in?"

               Click on Cases.

                 Now you have these choices....

  1.     What Jurisdiction (State or Federal). 
  2.      About.....
  3.      All Date....

If you don't know whether the final decision was from a federal court or state court you might not retrieve the last decision made.

I searched both federal and state. 

Using the state search I retrieved several cases; the first was from an appellet court. For some reason when I clicked State another box opened under neath probably to allow the searcher to narrow by state.  Then you would put one of the party names into the About box and run your search.

A. Lee v. Hansberry, 291 Ill. App. 517 Illinoise, Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Oct. 07, 1939.

B. Lee v. Hansberry, 372 Ill. 369 Illinois, Supreme Court of Illinois, Oct 10, 1939.

C. Grube v. State, 529 So. 2d 789  (This one just mentions a Hansberry, a Michael Hansberry, not Carl A. Hansberry.)

If you search the Federal cases you retrieve two hits.

A. Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32, Supreme Court of the United States, October 25, 1940 Argued; November 12, 1940, DECIDED.

B. The Hansberry v. Lee, 309 U. S. 652 was in April and not the deciding case.  Courts made a decision to allow it to go to the Supreme Court.

 

                  

Find an Act

Go online to The United States Code Popular Name Table.

 

On the right click on the letter "F". 

Scroll down until you see Fair Housing Act with this citation: 42 USCS § 3604

 

 Write down the ciation.

 

 Now

 

 

Locate the Fair Housing Act.

 

 

Return to the Lexis Nexis Academic Homepage.

 

o   U.S. Legal

 

o   Federal Statutes Codes  & Regulations 

o   42 USCS § 3604 in Citation.

 

o   SEARCH

 

Popular author and plagiarism

Find this at YouTube.com under Ann Coulter: Plagiarist and was posted by SKNABT. The video seems to be from MSN-NBC.

Lorraine Hansberry and Fair Housing

Posted on YouTube.com by TheBigBlackNewsBlog2 concerning Raisin in the Sun. The post is titled, Lorraine Hansberry's Chicago Home Historic Landsmark.