Validating Statutes in the United States

As the authors of the “Legal Research and Writing Handbook: A Basic Approach”, Andrea B. Yelin and ‎Hope Viner Samborn, wrote, “it is important to validate and update statutes”.

Updating Codes: The United States Code

According to the Marquette University Law School:

“The official version of the U.S. Code is updated every six years. The most recent updates were 2000, 2006, and 2012. Titles are updated in chronological order, and it can take nearly two years to publish the updated U.S. Code, now numbering Titles 1-54. The 2012 update of the official Code has one supplementary volume since the update, containing laws enacted and codified between January 3, 2013 and January 16, 2014. All titles of the official 2012 Code, and the 2014 supplement, are available in print on the first floor of the law library. HeinOnline pdfs are also available. You must update an official 2012 version of a statute (and any published supplement) to the current date. Care must be used to make sure you end up with the most up- to-date, officially sourced version of the statutory language you are validating.

To update a section of the U.S. Code to the current date, using only official sources, follow these steps:

1. Start by finding the desired title and section(s) in the most recent edition of the official Code, and read the section(s). If any supplements have been published, check those for your statutory section. If there have been amendments, capture them.

2. Next, go to United States Code Classification Tables on the U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Law Revision Counsel website. The tables for each year show which sections of the Code have been amended by public laws in that year. Search the table named “Sorted in U.S. Code order” for each year between the last officially updated version of your title/section and the current date. The Law Revision Counsel U.S. Code website is current within a few days.

Annual classification tables are available from 1995 forward on this website. For each year you need to update, look for the U.S. Code title and section in chronological order in the table (scroll down past the abbreviations guide to find the table). Locate your title and section, and read across to find parallel citations to the Public Law(s) and corresponding Statutes at Large volume(s) and section(s) that amended your code section in that year. If nothing is listed for your title and section, there was no amendment that year.

3. If you find an amending public law for your code section, you can link to the public law from the table. The number before the hyphen in the P.L. number indicates in which session of Congress the law was passed. (For example, PL 114-45 is the forty-fifth law passed in the 114th Congress, on 8/7/2015.)

4. Once you have located the citations to the public laws and determined the year(s) of amendment(s) from the classification tables, you can also check for the amended text in the U.S. Code Supplement volumes, if there are any supplements for your title. The supplements are available in PDF in HeinOnline, at the end of each official set. For example, if you were looking for supplements to the 2006 set, use the drop-down menus in Hein for the 2006 Code, and you will see supplements for 2007-2011 at the end of the 2006 titles. Supplements to the Code sets also are available in printed volumes on the first floor of the library. Supplements are official, and amended language in them can be cited giving the statutory section and year of the officially published supplement. You can also use the drop-down menu on the Law Revision Counsel website to find official supplements to the Code. Ask your editors, and consult the Bluebook, to decide whether a supplement volume (if there is one) should be cited for a particular statutory change, or the Public Law.

If you are citing a federal statute that has been amended since 2012 and there is no U.S. Code supplement with the new language, you would use the public law. Cite the statute with the year of the most recent official Code, followed with “as amended by,” (insert public law that amended the statute).”

According to Harvard University, regarding the updating of online sources:

“Most online versions of various codes are updated within 48 hours of legislative changes. Check the currency note at the beginning of the code or code section when looking online – such as in Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law, GPO or at a state’s legislative website.

The U.S. Code Classification Tables are useful for identifying very recent additions and amendments to the U.S. Code. These tables are sorted in U.S. Code order as well as by public law number.

For recently enacted federal legislation in slip law or otherwise, visit THOMAS. Thomas can be word/phrase (or index) searched by date for proposed additions or amendments to the U.S. Code. Congressional bills are also word/phrase searchable at GPO.

State legislative sites offer bills in full text and commonly provide keyword searching and bill status information. In addition, commercial databases such as Westlaw, Lexis and LexisNexis State Capital provide state session law searching for state code updates.”

In the case of updating of print sources, Harvard University writes the following:

“Check the pocket part in the back of the volume or the cumulative supplement. These supplements are usually published annually. Look for legislative service pamphlets. These updates are published throughout the year and usually include a cumulative list of statutes affected by recently enacted laws and a cumulative subject index.

Tables of amendments and repeals published in codes and advance legislative services provide citations to session laws that modify existing statutes. All three versions of the U.S. Code and Statutes at Large through 1976 contain tables of amendments, repeals and new code provisions.”

Validating Codes

From Harvard University:

“To establish the current validity of an existing statute, find and read case law (in your jurisdiction) that cites your statute. Look out for court constitutionality rulings and other holdings affecting the statute’s “good law” status.

If you are looking at a statute in a commercial database like Lexis, Westlaw or Bloomberg Law, then you can use a citator (like Shepard’s or Key Cite) to locate current materials that analyze your statute, such as cases and secondary sources.”

ANALYZING CODES

Quick Code Analysis

For analyzing codes, Harvard propose this “Read and Browse” method:

“Read the statute to determine if it does indeed cover the legal issue you are researching. Browse the chapter or title outline to see if other sections may also be pertinent. Look at the surrounding sections. Many statutes include a purpose or legislative findings statement. Reading these sections may help you understand why the legislature enacted the law. Look for a definitions sections. Often the legislature will provide a list of definitions of words or phrases used in a law. Those definitions may vary from commonly accepted definitions.”

In order to review Statute annotations, Harvard University advises the following:

“Look at the annotations to the statute(s). Annotations include a history of the law (when it was originally enacted and subsequently amended) and references to court decisions that have applied or interpreted the statute, law review articles that focus on the statute, and other material. Use the annotations to continue your research for mandatory and persuasive precedent (court cases).”

Updating and Validating Federal Statutes

Regardless of what source the researcher or practitioner use to locate a section of a Federal statute, he or she should always update and validate that section. For information on how to update and validate a Federal statute section, click here for information about Updating and Validating Statutes. In the entry about researching State statutes there is also a section on Updating State Statutes and on Validating State Statutes.