United States Code

United States Code
Name	United States Code
Abbreviation	USC
Type	Compilation of federal statutes
Jurisdiction	United States
Established	1926
Publisher	Office of the Law Revision Counsel; Government Publishing Office

Contents

United States Code is the official organized compilation of general and permanent federal statutory laws enacted by the United States Congress and signed by the President of the United States. It provides a subject-matter arrangement of statutes originally published in the Statutes at Large and is used by judges on the Supreme Court of the United States, judges of the United States Courts of Appeals, members of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, and attorneys at the United States Department of Justice. The Code is maintained and prepared for publication by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel in the United States House of Representatives with printing by the Government Publishing Office.

Overview and Purpose

The Code organizes enacted laws into subject titles such as Title 18 (criminal law), Title 26 (Internal Revenue Code), and Title 42 (public health and welfare), enabling courts like the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, appellate courts such as the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and tribunals including the United States Tax Court to cite consistent provisions. It serves legislative drafters in the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and United States House Committee on the Judiciary, supports executive agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, and aids scholars at institutions like Harvard Law School and Yale Law School researching decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and opinions of justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Code is divided into numbered titles; examples include Title 10 (armed forces), Title 11 (bankruptcy), Title 15 (commerce and trade), and Title 50 (war and national defense). Each title contains subtitles, chapters, subchapters, parts, and sections that correspond to specific statutes used by entities such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission. Cross-references and annotations link to landmark enactments like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Social Security Act, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Internal Revenue Code amendments enacted by the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The organizational schema informs statutory interpretation in cases argued before the United States Supreme Court and decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Official print editions have been issued historically by the Government Printing Office and private publishers including West Publishing and LexisNexis. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel provides the editorial work for the official compilation while the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School and vendors such as Westlaw and LexisNexis offer annotated online versions. Courts reference the Code in opinions authored by judges including those from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and trial judges in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Although the Code is prima facie evidence of the law, the definitive text remains the positive law titles enacted by Congress and the original language in the Statutes at Large, a principle applied in litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States.

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel conducts editorial codification, compiling public laws from sessions of the United States Congress into titles and performing non-substantive changes under direction from congressional committees such as the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some titles have been enacted into positive law by Congress through statutes passed by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate and signed by the President of the United States, for example parts of Title 10 and Title 46. Revision projects interact with bodies like the American Law Institute and often consider precedents cited in opinions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and legislative history preserved in the Library of Congress.

Statutes are first published chronologically in the Statutes at Large after enactment by the United States Congress and signature by the President of the United States; the Code reorganizes these statutes by subject. Federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Transportation promulgate regulations in the Federal Register that are codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. Courts including the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit often resolve conflicts by examining the original text in the Statutes at Large and regulatory text in the Code of Federal Regulations when interpreting provisions cited under titles like Title 21 and Title 49.

Public access is provided through repositories and platforms such as the Library of Congress, the Government Publishing Office's online resources, the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, commercial services like Westlaw and LexisNexis, and academic portals at Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center. Law libraries at institutions like the Yale Law School and the Columbia Law School provide print and digital access, while courts and practitioners rely on citation guides from the Bluebook and directives from the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Educators and students at Stanford Law School and researchers at the Brookings Institution use these resources for statutory research, legislative history analysis, and case preparation.