Where to find federal law on the web

What are the official duties of the United States President?

When is downloading music on the internet illegal?

I feel that I lost my job due to my age. What does the federal law say about that?

Finding federal law

The above questions, and much more, can be answered by using the United States Code.  The United States Code contains our federal law.  It is divided into 50 broad subject areas.  You can search most online versions by subject or you can click on headings in the Code's table of contents.  You can search the United States Code at these two web sites.

U.S. Code (GPO Access, the Government Printing Office web site)

U.S. Code (generated from the U.S. House of Representatives)

Is the U.S. Code up-to-date?  Check on the GPO Access site  or on Thomas (Library of Congress) to search for current laws that may change the U.S. Code.

United States Constitution & the Bill of Rights

Some of the posts in the Akron Law Café refer to the U.S. Constitution.  Try reading the sections of the U.S. Constitution yourself? 

The latest edition of the U.S. Constitution (with current supplements) is found on the GPO Access web site.

Here is an annotated copy of the U.S. Code prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress.  This annotated edition is a hypertext interpretation and links to Supreme Court opinions, the U.S. Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations.

Are you interested in historical copies of the U.S. Constitution? 

A good place to begin is the Library of Congress' Constitution page.  Resources include scanned images of a very early printing of the U.S. Constitution and links to other materials from the Continental Congress (1774).

The U.S. National Archives also has scanned images of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights (1789).

 Answers to the above questions:

1.  The official duties of the President can be found in Title 3 of the U.S. Code section 301 (3 U.S.C. § 301).

2.  The law concerning downloading music is found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act in Title 17 of the U.S. Code.

3.  The law describing age discrimination on the job is found in Title 29 of the U.S. Code section 623 (29 U.S.C. § 29).

 

 

Tagged as: codified law, constitution, federal law, statutes, U.S. Code, United States Constitution, United States laws