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There are examples of how to find Bills in progress, get information from State Attorney General's offices and Supreme Court Decisions.
 
OVERVIEW OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM
 
There are three bodies that create the law:  The legislature, the judiciary, and the administrative agencies. Each creates its own type of law.

The legislatures, whether federal or state, make statutory law which is generally codified.  The entire process of a bill becoming a law has to do with the legislature.  State laws can usually be found in the state code, and the statutes passed by Congress can be found in the United States Code(USC).  Each state also has its own method of publishing its statutory laws, and they can usually be found in some sort of state code.

Congress has created federal administrative agencies, and has authorized them to make their own law.  These agencies can create rules and regulations in order to carry out the agency functions.  These regulations are considered law until they are overruled, either by federal courts, or by the legislature.  Federal agencies organize their rules in two ways:  1) Chronologically in administrative registers, or 2) according to subject matter in administrative codes.  State agencies often do not publish their regulations, but there are commercial publishers that may have taken on that task themselves.

The Judiciary branch makes "case law" or "common law."  These are the laws that are found in court decisions, and are often application or interpretation of statutory (legislative) law.  Case law is documented chronologically in "case reporters" and by subject matter in "case digests."  Each Federal district has its own reporters and digests and each state is organized similarly.
   
COURT STRUCTURE  

There are two major Court systems, the Federal and State systems.

Federal:
 
 Federal courts have three levels which vary in function and finality.  These levels from lowest to highest is trial - intermediate appellate - US Supreme Court.  The higher the court, the more binding its law on the courts below it.  This is called precedent.  The Supreme Court, for example, has precedence over all federal courts in the nation.

The first level of courts in the federal system is the trial courts: called US District Courts.  Each state has at least one federal district within it.  These districts fall into geographical regions called "Circuits."  There are 13 Federal Circuit Courts:

 A person involved in a suit in a U.S. court may proceed through three levels of decision. Generally, the case will be heard and
decided by one of the district courts on the first level. If a party is dissatisfied with the decision rendered, the party may have the decision reviewed in one of the courts of appeals. If dissatisfied with the decision of a court of appeals, the party may seek
additional review in the Supreme Court of the United States; however, the Supreme Court primarily reviews only cases that
involve a matter of great national importance and only accepts a small number of cases each term.

Understanding the Federal Courts: This is a good site to understand the courts in more detail.

Federal Rules:

Federal Rules of Evidence

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (L.I.I.)

Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure

State:

State courts have general, unlimited power to decide nearly every type of case, subject only to the limitations of the U.S.
Constitution, their own state constitutions, and state law. The state and local courts are located in virtually every town and
county and are the courts with which citizens most often have contact. These courts handle most criminal matters and the great
bulk of legal business concerning probate of estates, marital disputes, dealings in land, commercial contracts, and other
day-to-day matters.

They also have a trial level, and either one or two appellate levels.
  Glossary of Terms
 
 
Helpful Links:

Congressional Sites

Federal Circuit Courts

Federal Agencies

State Law Sites