Borland MUSE

Westlaw contains many different categories of legal resources such as court cases, statutes, regulations, and legislation.  Secondary sources includes law reviews and journals. Navigate to the link for the resource type you want to search.

Westlaw will bring you to a menu of courts and jurisdictions. Selecting an option on this page will allow you to browse and search cases from just that court of jurisdiction. In the image below, we are selecting "US Supreme Court" to see cases only from the US Supreme Court.

Search content in the top search bar by adding keywords relevant to your topic. Note the jurisdiction box or source box at the end of the search bar that tells you within what content you are searching.

The default searches All Federal material. To search All State materials or individual states, click on the jurisdiction box where it says "All Federal" and select your desired jurisdiction(s). You can search All States, or up to 3 individual states at once.

You can use connectors to build searches within the Advanced Search option. 

Advanced Search give you options for how Westlaw will look for the terms you give it. By filling out the form, Westlaw will format the search for you. To control how individual terms are related to one another, you must use the terms & connectors listed to the side of advanced search and below on this guide.

Change your results display by choosing options for how cases are sorted (by relevant, most recent, etc.) and how much detail is displayed in the preview.

Click on the case caption (title) to view the document.

View your results. This image shows the case Boumedienne v. Bush (2008).

Use Key Cite features to learn about how the case relates to subsequent cases. You may hear your professor talk about determining whether a case is "good law." Key Cite helps you finds cases that may have qualified, modified, or outright overruled aspects of this decision. Click on the tabs that say "negative treatment" and "history," as well as icons (such as red or yellow flags) that appear above the case heading.