The Courts
Much of what is legal or not legal in the "common law" American system stems from court decisions. Decisions of the United States Supreme Court are binding on all Americans; those of the various "Circuit Courts" are binding only within their own areas, and those of state Supreme Courts are binding within states.
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United States Supreme Court decisions
The Cornell University Law School maintains a continually-upgraded site providing access to Supreme Court decisions: all since 1990, and a selection of important decisions from before 1990. Their opening page describes the current state of this archives and retrieval tool. Searches can be conducted by topic and by case name, or browsed by date.

The Supreme Court Historical Society
"The Supreme Court Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the history of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Society, a not-for-profit organization incorporated in the District of Columbia in 1974, was founded by the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger who served as its first honorary chairman. The Society accomplishes its mission by conducting public and educational programs, publishing books and other materials, supporting historical research, and collecting antiques and artifacts related to the Court's history. These activities and others increase the public's awareness of the Court's contributions to our nation's rich constitutional heritage."

The Oyez Project: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia Database
"The OYEZ Project provides access to more than 2000 hours of Supreme Court audio. All audio in the Court recorded since 1995 is included in the project. Before 1995, the audio collection is selective. It remains our aim to create a complete and authoritative archive of Supreme Court audio covering the entire span from October 1955 through the most recent release."

LLRX.com - Web Guide to U.S. Supreme Court Research
"The Web Guide to U.S. Supreme Court Research is intended to facilitate the convenience and speed that we expect when turning to the Internet for our research needs. Often, we are unimpressed by the performance of search engines primarily because of problems with the quantity or relevancy of the results. This Web Guide attempts to overcome the shortcomings of general web searching by providing a selection of annotated links to the most reliable, substantive sites for U.S. Supreme Court research. The sites mentioned here focus predominantly on information that is freely, or inexpensively, available on the Internet."

Minnesota Supreme Court and judicial system
This site is an excellent informative guide to the Minnesota court system and access to full-text of Supreme Court and Court of Appeals rulings, updated daily.

Famous Trials
"My original purpose in creating the Famous Trials site was a very modest one. I wanted to post a variety of background materials for students enrolled in my Famous Trials Seminar. There is no single text that works for such a seminar, and requiring my students to purchase, say, fourteen books about fourteen trials seemed out of the question. Soon, however, I discovered through e-mails that there was a wider audience for such materials ... My purpose shifted over time. Now, I see my principal audience as high school, college, and law school instructors and students. Sure, I also hope the site will serve as a useful starting point for the serious scholar working on a major book or paper on one of the trials covered on the site. But the site does not pretend to be archival in the traditional sense. Most of the trial transcripts for the thirty-plus trials on the site run into the thousands of pages. Without grants and without significant university resources, there is simply no way that I can scan such voluminous materials and post them in complete form on the site. In fact, such a massive posting of materials would run counter to my basic goal of providing a clear, concise, and reasonably balanced understanding of the trials. Transcripts can be overwhelming. I've tried to present some of the most important and compelling testimony, and leave out materials that are less significant--and often mind-numbingly repetitive. I might add that editing transcripts is time-consuming work--but work that I have found important enough to justify several trips to the National Archives and other archival libraries where such transcripts are found."