General Legal & Policy Research
Federal Law
The United States Code
What: The United States Code (USC) consolidates and codifies the laws of the United States. Organized by subject matter and divided into titles, the USC consists only of statutes, not regulations. To search regulations see the Code of Federal Regulation section below.
How to search: The Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute (LII) USC research site offers many effective research tools. You may search by Specific Title and Section; by Table of Titles, which links titles, chapters, and sections within a specific title or permits title-specific keyword searches; by Complete USC search by keyword of the entire USC; by Table of Popular Names, which lists alphabetically the common names for legislative acts and links them to relevant USC sections.
- Social Security Act Reference This link directs users to a Social Security Act Compilation. While organized by Social Security Act Title, this site also references the corresponding USC citation. Additionally, the Table of Contents feature permits title browsing, and a Linked Index links users to specific sections of the Social Security Act based on alphabetically indexed keywords and topics.
Helpful hints: When users have found a specific section of the USC, the links at the right of the screen offer several helpful tools to further your research. For each section of the USC users have access to the Notes, which provide information about amendments and source of the law. An Update link automatically checks the House of Representatives for recent changes. A Topical References link searches the Cornell LII database for topical materials relevant to that section of the USC. For example when viewing 42 USC §1395, clicking the Topical References link provides topical resources for Health, Children, Social Security, Welfare and Disability. Finally, the Parallel Authorities link searches the Code of Federal Regulations for regulations relevant to the section of the USC searched.
Last updated: The Cornell LII site offers the most recent version of the USC made available by the US House of Representatives current through Jan 2, 2001. For recent changes (since 2001) to the USC, users may search the tables at the website of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives. At this site, users will find tables that reference changes to the USC (listed by title and section, numerically) and the corresponding Public Law citation. Once users have the USC section and its corresponding Public Law citation, the text of the new law may be searched at Thomas (see below for details).
Other Web sites: In addition to the Cornell site, the USC may be accessed through several sites on the web:
