At 4:42 PM on Friday, January 27, 2017, President Trump issued an unprecedented executive order entitled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.”  The full text of the order is available from the whitehouse.gov site. 

NOTE: The Official Text was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 1, 2017. 

Many lawyers (and law students) have headed to airports to assist detained individuals. LexisNexis and Bloomberg Law have granted permission to AUWCL students involved in such efforts to use Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law on behalf of immigrants or refugees.

Attorneys and law students interested in volunteering to represent immigrants, can take advantage of PLI's extensive programming, including a brand new One Hour Briefing on  Habeas Petitions.  Their On-Demand programs are available to you through our PLI Discover Plus subscription (see links below). Their programs cover topics such as Representing Unaccompanied Children and Defending Immigration Removal. They also have an upcoming program on Habeas Petitions for Detained Immigrants, which will be available via live webcast. (Students are eligible to apply for a scholarship to attend the program, please see the application here: http://www.pli.edu/Content/Pro_Bono/_/N-8q). 

On-Demand Programming includes:

• Basic Immigration Law
• Defending Immigration Removal Proceedings
• Representing Children in Immigration Matter
• The Art & Science of Interviewing Pro Bono Clients

• Current students, faculty and staff can track the ongoing cases using Bloomberg Law Dockets. Use the Litigation & Dockets tab to download relevant documents, track the docket and keep abreast of what is going on in each case. If you don't have a Bloomberg Law account, go to bloomberglaw.com/activate and follow the prompts. Please note that you must USE YOUR AU/WCL EMAIL ADDRESS to obtain a Bloomberg password.

Users may also consult the following subject headings from the Pence Law Library Catalog to find books and materials available at the library: 

Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook is the go to guide for immigration and refugee research. It is available at Pence by asking at the circulation desk or through the library's AILA subscription (current WCL students, faculty and staff only).

Many practitioners have access to Fastcase through their bar or alumni associations. A list of bar associations with free access to Fastcase is available here: http://www.fastcase.com/barmembers/.

Topical Legal Databases

• Search AILA link
• Search International Encyclopedia of Laws. Migration Law
• Search International Journal of Refugee Law
• Search Fastcase - online access to cases, statutes, regulations, court rules, and bar publications

Legislation

• Search United States Code - HeinOnline
• Search Congressional Record - HeinOnline
• Search State Session Laws & Federal Public Laws - HeinOnline

Government Sources

• Search U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
• Search ProQuest Congressional Publications
• Search Congress.gov
• Search Congressional Quarterly Press Electronic Library

General Legal Databases

• Search LLMC Digital Law Library
• Search vLEX - Law Portal (Foreign & U.S.)
• Search WestLaw
• Search Bloomberg Law
• Search FindLaw for Legal Professionals
• Search Lexis Advance
• Search The Volokh Conspiracy (blog)
• Search Eagle-i: Electronic Access to Global Legal Information
• Search Justia.com (covers U.S., States & Latin America)

Encyclopedias

• Search American Jurisprudence 2d (Am Jur 2d)
• Search American Law Reports
• Search Corpus Juris Secundum
• Search Gale Virtual Reference Library

Indexes & Abstracts

• Search Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
• Search LegalTrac

Institutional Repositories

• Search Digital Commons@American Universtiy Washington College of Law​

Need Help?

Get help with Ask a Pence Law Librarian or email the reference librarians.

Access to Hein Online & Fastcase

WCL alumni have access to HeinOnline's Law Journal database and Fastcase’s federal and state case law collection via Hein. Alumni access to HeinOnline is available through the CareerLink home page that can be accessed using a personal login and password. To request a CareerLink account, send an e-mail to careerdevelopment@wcl.american.edu including your full name, date of graduation, degree program, and your primary e-mail address (which will become your CareerLink username). Registration may take up to two business days.

Other Databases & Resources

Due to license restrictions, WCL cannot offer remote access to other subscription-based databases to graduates, but Pence staff members welcome and encourage the use of the library's website and catalog at http://library.wcl.american.edu/. WCL alumni are also welcome to use the library and its collections the old-fashioned way—by stopping in during public hours. Reference librarians are happy to assist graduates with research . To contact a reference librarian, email reference@wcl.american.edu.

Chat Service is offered during Reference Desk hours, and is available to AU and WCL currently enrolled students, faculty and staff.

Privacy: Pence Law Library values confidentiality. We may save a copy of your chat session for research or educational purposes, but will remove all identifying information.