Shift #23 - U.S. Federal Statutes Recorded Webinar
Thursday, June 13, 2024 | 11:30 am-12:30 pm CST/12:30-1:30 pm EST (1 hr)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the first slide of a recorded webinar on U.S. Federal Statutes. Beth Osborne was the host for this webinar.
This was another informative webinar hosted by the Library of Congress. I learned more about what U.S. Federal Statutes are and how they are created - statutes are created by Congress. However, laws start off as bills and resolutions, which are proposed to Congress to be law - this is part of the legislative process. Once a bill or a resolution is enacted, it is referred to as a statute, which is published in two different print publications - the U.S. Code and the U.S. Statutes at Large. The U.S. Code is a compilation of general and permanent federal laws in the United States, and it is organized by topic to make it easier to look through. There are 54 broad subjects in the code, with each subject having its own title number. There are two different print sources that can be viewed to find laws. The first is the aforementioned U.S. Code, which is published by the Government Publishing Office (GPO) every six years (and updated yearly with supplements). There is also the Annotated Codes, which has unofficial versions of the U.S. Code, printed by commercial publishers. The Annotated Codes has annotations or notes with citations to primary and secondary authorities. There are two of these publications - the U.S. Code Service and the U.S. Code Annotated.
We also learned about how citations are done for the U.S. Code. There's a learning curve with learning how to read the citation, which includes a title, a version (official or unofficial), the section where the code is found and the year of the code. During the webinar, there were exercises that the host did so we could follow along. An example is if a lawyer's client sprained their ankle and is wondering if their condition is considered a serious health condition specifically as it is listed in the Family and Medical Leave Act. Here, the key words are "serious health condition" and we used the Popular Name Tool search option, which pulled up search results. Number four of the results is the FMLA Act of 1993, and it starts at Title 29, section 2601. We were also shown other ways to search including using the "browse" feature and searching by definition. Once you pull up the code and look at the entire page, you will see that related laws are cited and these are called source notes or source credits (where you can find the history of a code - its life cycle like seeing statutes that were enacted to get to the law where it is today).
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