Civics Sites

Congress

Congress Today

From C-Span, this site offers information on Congress. Students can write to Congress, look at the Congressional Directory or the Congressional Votes Library, or look up questions about Impeachment, Congress, House of Representatives, or the Senate with answers provided by C-Span resident congressional scholar..

THOMAS Legislative Information

This service of the U.S. Congress offers up-to-date information on legislators, legislation, and the legislative process. Sections to search are Congress Now for breaking events, Bills for Bill summary and status, Bill text, and roll call votes, Congressional Records, Committee Information for information on House Committees, and Historical Documents. The Historical Documents section can be searched and includes Early Congressional documents, The Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and The Constitution.

U.S. Congress

Sections include Congress today, Congressional Directory and a directory of the executive and judicial branches, Capitol Hill basics (information on communicating with members), find your rep, legislation, and scorecard (members voting records).

Government

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Sections include your FBI, most wanted, FBI news, Freedom of Information and Privacy Act, crime statistics, teens, educational page, and more.

The Internal Revenue Service

Look at everything you need to know about taxes. There are sections on tax statistics, tax information, taxpayer help and education, meet the tax commissioner, and what's hot.

The Library of Congress

Choose current exhibits such as American Memory, documents, photographs, movies, and sound recordings that tell America's story including resources such as the Learning Page, or Today in History, or look at the American Treasures of the Library of Congress exhibition, or use research tools.

The Secretary of State

Look at sections on policy, the department, regions, services, archives, and frequently asked questions.

The White House

Find out information about the President and Vice President, White House History, White House Documents, and What's News.

Historical Documents

Constitution of the United States

This site allows searching of Supreme Court cases which decide the meaning of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School

Major historical documents dating back to the 12th century are presented in entirety, with links to supporting documents, glossaries, and indexes for each one. Major documents relevant to Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government are found here. Some of the topics are American History: A Chronology 1492-1973, Annual Messages of the Presidents, The Barbary Treaties 1816-1836, The Cold War, Economic and Legal Treatises, Foreign Relations of the United States, Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, and many, many more.

Law

American Bar Association

LawLink (Top) provides dozens of hotlinks to legislative, judicial, executive, and regulatory offices.

Anatomy of a Murder: A Trip Through Our Nation's Legal System

This site guides students through the maze of the legal justice system as they follow a murder suspect from arrest through trial.

Lesson Plans

Project Vote Smart

Tracking the performance of over 13,000 political leaders, this is a wealth of facts on candidates and elected officials. Choose Vote Smart Classroom where you'll find resources for students and teachers including lesson plans and other resources. Sections include vote smart lessons, suggestions for teachers, links to lesson plans and resources, and more.

Politics

All Politics

From CNN Interactive, this site features a selection of articles on major contemporary politics.

League of Women Voters

Non partisan voter information from The League of Women Voters

Statistics

Government Information Sharing Project

Use this as a source of statistics. Sections include Where to find the 1990 census figures for population and housing, population by age, sex, and races, school district data book profiles, U.S. imports and exports, earnings by occupation and much more.

Supreme Court

Constitution of the United States

This site allows searching of Supreme Court cases which decide the meaning of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The Oyez Project

Read about and listen to opening arguments from major constitutional cases heard and decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court began to record its public sessions in October 1955. The site uses RealAudio. Also be sure to check out the page that lists cases by subject or search by title, citation, or date.