How can one find cases that have interpreted a federal regulation?

Finding cases that have interpreted a federal regulation is most effectively accomplished by reviewing the case annotations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) on resources like Westlaw or Lexis. These platforms provide detailed annotations and references to case law relevant to federal regulations, enabling researchers to locate judicial interpretations and contextual applications of specific regulations.

The annotations in the CFR generally include citations to cases, allowing for straightforward and efficient access to judicial opinions that have analyzed or applied the regulation in question. This is a targeted approach that saves time and enhances the reliability of the findings because the cases cited will be directly related to the federal regulation being researched.

In contrast, looking in state-only case law databases would likely miss relevant federal cases, as they focus on state law interpretations. A general internet search may yield a variety of results, but it would not provide the specificity and reliability of established legal databases known for their rigorous case law indexing. Additionally, reading summaries of regulations in newspapers is unlikely to capture comprehensive legal insights or case law interpretations as they provide information in a much less formal and less detailed context.