WELCOME TO FORMA PAUPERIS CRISIS CENTER FEDERAL STATUTES AND CODES: SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. What is a statute? A statute is "a law established by the act of the legislativepower" (Bouvier). A federal statute must be approved by bothhouses of Congress and be either approved by the President orrepassed by Congress over his veto. 2. What is the difference between an act and a joint resolution? Nothing, except an act begins "Be it enacted," and a jointresolution begins "Resolved." Formally, joint resolutions are usedfor "secondary, subordinate" pieces of legislation and acts formore important measures; but practically the distinction has beenblurred, and both are used indifferently for major and minoractions. Joint resolutions can amend or repeal statutes, and viceversa. As long as they are passed by Congress and approved by thePresident, both become statutes. 3. What is the difference between public laws and private laws? Both are equally valid statutes; but public laws apply to thegeneral public at large, while private laws are enacted to benefita specially situated individual or small number of persons. 4. How are federal statutes numbered? Nowadays, federal statutes are designated first by the numberof the Congress that passed them, and then in order of theirapproval. For example Public Law No. 100-1 is the first publicstatute the 100th Congress enacted into law. Public and privatelaws are numbered in separate series (so that there is also aPrivate Law No. 100-1). Prior to 1957, chapter numbers were used to designate statutesin order of approval, public and private laws being in one chapterseries. For example: Pub. L. No. 101, ch. 682, 57th Cong., lstSess. (1902). Before 1937, measures were numbered in new series at the endof each year-long session of a two-year Congress, so that it wasnecessary (as in the example above) to designate both Congress andsession. 5. What are concurrent resolutions and simple resolutions? Concurrent resolutions are passed by both houses of Congressbut are not presented to the President for approval. They statethe sense of Congress on a particular matter or propose amendmentsto the Constitution and do not have the binding effect of statutes. Simple resolutions are passed by one house of Congress only toexpress the opinion or procedure of that house alone. 6. Where are federal statutes and resolutions published? Public laws (both acts and joint resolutions) are published asindividual slip laws and in the United States Code Congressionaland Administrative News, the United States Code Service AdvanceSheets, and finally in the official United States Statutes atLarge. Private laws are published as individual slip laws and in theStatutes at Large. Concurrent resolutions are published in the CongressionalRecord, the House and Senate Journals, and the Statutes at Large. Simple resolutions are published in the Congressional Recordand the Journal of the house that passed them. 7. What are ordinances of the Continental Congress? They are federal statutes passed between 1776 and 1789, beforeadoption of the Constitution. The great Northwest Ordinance,governing admission of states to the union, is printed among theorganic laws of the United States, in volume 1 of the United StatesCode. Other ordinances are printed in the Journals of theContinental Congress. Most ordinances are of no practical effecttoday, except insofar as they may affect treaty rights ofparticular Indian tribes (see, for example, 860 F.2d 1145) FEDERAL CODES 1. What are codes and why do we need them? The Statutes at Large print federal statutes in chronologicalorder as enacted, with no subject arrangement or indication whethera subsequent statute has amended or repealed a prior one. Therefore, we need a code, arranging the current, amended text ofstatutes in a logical subject order. 2. What was the first official federal code? The United States Revised Statutes of 1873. This compilationincluded the substance of all the currently effective statutes inthe Statutes at Large from 1789 to 1872, and when enacted intopositive law, it repealed all the prior statutes on which it wasbased. The Revised Statutes of 1878 corrected errors in the 1873 revision. Sections in the Revised Statutes are numberedsequentially throughout the compilation, so you need cite only toa section in the revision (for example, R.S. sec. 50). To find if a section of the Revised Statutes is in the currentUnited States Code, check Table II in the USC tables volume. Tofind if a USC section is derived from the Revised Statutes, checkthe derivation notes contained in parentheses following thesection. 3. What is the United States Code (USC)? It is the current subject compilation of permanent federalstatutes of general applicability. It was first published in 1926and reissued in new editions by the government every six years. The United States Code Annotated (USCA) and the United States CodeService (USCS) are commercially published versions of the USCcontaining the same statutes but providing additional researchaids. 4. How is the USC arranged? Its provisions are divided by subject into fifty numberedtitles. The sections in each title are numbered separately. It isthus necessary to cite both title and section of the USC: forexample, to cite sec. 591 setting forth the duties of independentcounsels, you must also cite the title in which it is located, 28--thus 28 USC 591. 5. Why are section numbers in public laws often different from thesame provisions in the USC? The editors of the USC classify provisions according to theUSC subject arrangement, renumbering (and in some cases rewording)them to fit into the USC framework. On one hand, the derivationnotes following USC sections tell from what public law sections theUSC provisions derive, and on the other, the tables described inanswer no. 11 below show where public law sections end up in theUSC. 6. Why don't all sections of a public law appear in the USC? The USC includes only general statutes of permanent force andeffect. It therefore excludes such measures as appropriations actsof temporary laws. These are sometimes printed as notes followingpermanent USC sections. 7. What do the phrases "positive law" and "prima facie evidence ofthe law" mean in connection with the USC? Statutes constituting "positive law" are public laws directlyenacted by Congress; as the direct expression of the legislativebranch they are taken by courts, without more evidence, as accuratestatements of what Congress enacted. Statutes that are "primafacie evidence of the law" have been edited by code compilers tofit in the USC's format. Since the text of such statutes may varyslightly from the public laws that Congress enacted, they are"prima facie evidence" only: that is, courts will accept them asstatements of what Congress enacted, but if an opposing party canpresent a more accurate version (the public laws printed in theStatutes at Large), the court will follow that version, rather thanthe wording in the USC. (For an example of where this made adifference, see 460 US 300, 310, n.13.) 8. Why are some titles of the USC "positive law" and others only"prima facie evidence of the law"? Unlike the Revised Statutes, which were enacted in theirentirety as positive law (and which repealed the individualstatutes from which they were derived), the USC was originally onlya prima facie restatement of the federal statute law, rearrangedand compiled by its editors from the Revised Statutes and from manyvolumes of the Statutes at Large. Since it is much easier to citeto the USC directly as positive law, rather than to the Statutes atLarge, Congress has gradually, title by title, been enacting theUSC into positive law (see generally 1 USC 204(a)). 9. How are USC titles enacted into positive law? The congressional Office of Law Revision Counsel studies eachtitle, comparing it with the underlying public laws and rewordingand rearranging it to reflect the meaning of the originalenactments. When completely revised, the title is itself enactedby Congress as a public law, and all the prior statutes, from whichit was derived, are repealed. (Table I of the USC tables volumegives cross references from old section numbers to new forreenacted titles.) Thereafter the title itself is positive law andcan be cited directly in court. If Congress subsequently amendssections in the title, it does so by reference directly to the USCitself. 10. How can I tell if a USC title has been enacted into positivelaw? USC titles enacted into positive law are listed following 1USC 204 and also appear in the list of titles printed at thebeginning of each USC volume, with positive law titles indicated byasterisk. 11. How can I find the USC citation for provisions cited by theirpublic law section numbers? (a) If you know the public law number or Statutes at Largecitation: Check Table III of the USC tables volume. This isupdated by Table 2 (the classifications table) of the United StatesCode Congressional and Administrative News. (b) If you know the popular name of the statute: CheckShepard's Acts and Cases by Popular Name or the USC, USCA, or USCStables of acts by popular name. For very recent statutes, checkthe United States Code Congressional and Administrative News orUSCS Advance Sheets indexes or popular name tables, or the CCHCongressional Index "Names of Laws Amended/Enacted." All thesewill give you the public law number of your statute. 12. How are sections of USC titles not enacted into positive lawamended? They are amended by reference to the underlying statute, notby reference to where the provision appears in the USC. Thus, anamending act will read "Section 404(e) of the National Housing Actis amended. . . ," not "12 USC 1727(e) is amended. . . ." By usingTable III of the USC tables volume with reference to the originalpublic law section amended, you can locate where the amendmentappears in the USC. 13. How about a statute amended by successive public laws, so thatit is an amalgam of several separate enactments, and can't belocated under any one Statutes at Large reference in the USCtables? This is a problem. The Social Security Act is a good example. Originally enacted in 1935, its sections have been amended,repealed, or renumbered by some sixty years of public laws. Itsprovisions are scattered through Title 42, which has never beenenacted into positive law. There is no good answer to this one. If you're lucky enoughto know the specific public law that enacted the provision youneed, it is, of course, simple enough to go to the USC tables. Ifyou aren't so lucky, look for a looseleaf service or subjectcompilation that may print the entire act in its current form,using public law section numbers, rather than USC designations. For the Social Security Act, for example, the CCH UnemploymentInsurance Reporter sets forth the public law in its current amendedform, apart from its codification in the USC. Sometimes treatisesor research guides will perform the same function. -- Answers courtesy of Albany Law School