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The United
States Code (U.S.C.) is
the general and permanent federal Law of the United States.
Once a Public Law is enacted,
its operative provisions are usually incorporated into the U.S. Code.
There are a few exceptions (in which case one must consult the Public
Law directly), but they are rare.
Organization
The Code is divided into titles, which deal with broad subjects; chapters;
and sections, which in turn may be divided into subsections. The word
"title" in this context is roughly akin to "volume,"
although many of the larger titles and a few sections span multiple volumes.
A sample citation
would be 5 U.S.C. § 552a, the Privacy Act of 1974. A lawyer would
read that out loud as "Title five, United States Code, section five
hundred and fifty-two A."
Versions
The official version of the Code is maintained by the Office of the Law
Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives.
However, practicing
lawyers always use an annotated version from a private company. The two
leading annotated versions are the United States Code Annotated, abbreviated
as U.S.C.A., and the United States Code Service, abbreviated as U.S.C.S.
The U.S.C.A. is published by Westlaw (part of Thomson), and the U.S.C.S.
is published by LexisNexis (part of Reed Elsevier). See Wexis.
An annotated version
contains annotations following each statute which summarize relevant court
decisions, law review articles, and uncodified provisions that are part
of the Public Laws. When an attorney is viewing an annotated code on an
online service, all the citations in the annotations are hyperlinked to
the referenced opinions and documents.
Other Relevant
Codifications
Sometimes Congress is either too congested or too lazy to write out all
the details of how a new law shall be implemented. So it often grants
broad powers to the executive branch to promulgate administrative regulations
through a special rulemaking process set out in the Administrative Procedure
Act.
The regulations are
initially published in the Federal Register and compiled into the Code
of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.). Once integrated into the C.F.R., they
carry the force of law.
Amendments
and Repeals
Amendments are usually indicated through the annual publication of "pocket
part" pamphlets that are inserted into the back of volumes of annotated
versions of the U.S.C., and an annotation will show the history of amendments
to any given section. When a pamphlet gets too thick, a new volume is
sent out.
When sections are
repealed, their text is deleted and replaced by a note summarizing what
used to be there. This is necessary so that lawyers reading old cases
can understand what the cases are talking about.
However, this can
be problematic because some laws, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
have been completely repealed, but their remnants remain in the Code as
empty chapters full of historical notes. In Title 8, Chapter 7 is labeled
"Exclusion of Chinese." Of the fifteen chapters in Title 8,
Chapter 7 is the only chapter whose heading refers to a specific nationality
or ethnic group.
Parts of
Interest
Title 26 of the U.S. Code is also known as the Internal Revenue Code.
It defines the Internal Revenue Service and is one of the largest portions
of the Code, along with Title 42, which includes provisions governing
several large federal government programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Some of the different
types of bankruptcy defined in Title 11 are commonly referred to simply
by their chapter numbers: Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 13.
A handful of U.S.C.
sections are so often cited that every American lawyer has heard of them.
By far, the most famous
section in the Code is 42 U.S.C. § 1983. It is the basis for virtually
all federal civil rights actions. Many different types of lawsuits are
brought in federal court under that section; they include everything from
excessive force lawsuits against police to First Amendment lawsuits against
public schools to maintain church/state separation. The section itself
is quite short, but in an annotated version of the U.S.C., its annotations
span several volumes.
Titles Of The U.S.C.
Title 1 General Provisions
Title 2 The U.S. Congress
Title 3 The President
Title 4 Flag and Seal, Seat Of Government, and the States
Title 5 Government Organization and Employees
Title 6 Domestic Security
Title 7 Agriculture
Title 8 Aliens and Nationality
Title 9 Arbitration
Title 10 Armed Forces (including the Uniform Code of Military Justice)
Title 11 Bankruptcy
Title 12 Banks and Banking
Title 13 Census
Title 14 Coast Guard
Title 15 Commerce and Trade
Title 16 Conservaton
Title 17 Copyrights
Title 18 Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Title 19 Customs Duties
Title 20 Education
Title 21 Food and Drugs
Title 22 Foreign Relations and Intercourse
Title 23 Highways
Title 24 Hospitals and Asylums
Title 25 Indians
Title 26 Internal Revenue Code
Title 27 Intoxicating Liquors
Title 28 Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
Title 29 Labor
Title 30 Mineral Lands and Mining
Title 31 Money and Finance
Title 32 National Guard
Title 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters
Title 34 Navy (repealed)
Title 35 Patents
Title 36 Patriotic Societies and Observances
Title 37 Pay and Allowances Of the Uniformed Services
Title 38 Veterans' Benefits
Title 39 Postal Service
Title 40 Public Buildings, Property, and Works
Title 41 Public Contracts
Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare
Title 43 Public Lands
Title 44 Public Printing and Documents
Title 45 Railroads
Title 46 Shipping
Title 47 Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs
Title 48 Territories and Insular Possessions
Title 49 Transportation
Title 50 War and National Defense
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