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There are three web sites that offer free access to searchable databases of the United States Code (U.S.C.):

• (1) The Government Printing Officeís site - GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html)
• (2) Cornell Law Schoolís LII site - the U.S. Code Collection (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode)
• (3) The Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representativesí site (http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml)

Even though all use the same Code (prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives), the House site is more up-to-date than the GPO or Cornell site (and also goes back further in time) often making the Houseís web version of the Code the preferred choice. Being "more up to date," however, does not mean current as of today. The U.S. Code is published only every six years by The Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives and is then supplemented on a regular basis. However, the supplements can be one to two years behind. For example, on January 2006, titles 1 through 49 were based on Supplement III of the 2000 edition (January 19, 2004) of the Code. Titles 50 through 50 Appendix, Tables I-VII and the Table of Popular Names and were based on Supplement II of the 2000 edition (January 6, 2003) of the Code. The Organic Laws are based on the 2000 edition (January 2, 2001) of the Code. Each section of the Houseís Code displays a date in the top-right corner indicating how up to date the section is. When a search is made for a specific section of the Code, as opposed to a keyword search, the results list will include an "Update" item listing any amendments not already reflected in the text of that section. To update the Code, one must visit the Legislatureís site to determine whether any recently passed bills affect the topic you have just researched in the U.S. Code. (Towards the end of this online seminar, we will explore the Legislatureís web site.) Each U.S. Code site offers features unique from the other, so your choice of which to use does not always depend solely on which is more up to date. Instead, deciding which site to use might depend on how much information one has at hand and what type of information one hopes to gather. Therefore, we will have you explore each of the 3 sites and point out the unique features of each.

Phrase and keyword searching the U.S. Code at the GPO site:

1. Your client beat up his brother-in-law. You need to research whether your client can be sentenced under the "domestic violence crime" act. You are not certain if someone can be sentenced under the "domestic violence crime" act for violence against just any relative. You are hoping that the violence has to be against a child or spouse.

Hint: Go to the GPO search screen http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/search.html, and highlight the "2000 suppl. 2" version of the Code and then type into the search box "domestic violence crime" (in quotes) and connect this phrase with the "and" boolean connector to the keyword "relative" (without quotation marks). You will find two results. Choose the result that is not labeled "Deportable aliens."

Before you begin reading this section to discover whether it is possible for someone to be sentenced under the "domestic violence crime" act for violence against any relative, here is a way to scan through this section of the Code to find your keywords and phrases quickly (use this technique throughout this quiz):

Use the "find" feature to pop up a "find" box into which you can type your
keywords or phrases. You will be taken directly to them and they will be highlighted: To pop up the "find" box, PC users should hold down the control key and f key and Mac users should hold down the command key and f key. Then, type in the keyword "relative" and press your "enter" (or "return") key and you will be taken to the highlighted keyword "relative." You can click "find next" to view each occurrence of your keyword.

Is it possible for someone to be sentenced under the "domestic violence crime" act for violence against any relative? Yes No

Phrase searching the U.S. Code and Finding a Public Law Number Using the U.S. Code at the GPO site:

2. After a bill becomes a law, it is assigned a Public Law (Pub. L.) number. Find the public law number for the U.S. Patriot Act of 2001.

Hint: Go to the GPO search screen http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/search.html, and highlight the "2000 suppl. 2" version of the Code and then type "Patriot Act" in quotes into the search box. You will find several results. Click on the one dealing with "Access to information" and open the "text." Scroll down to the section titled "References in Text" to find the Public law number.

What is the public law number?

Browse the Code by Title name at the GPO site:

3. Instead of keyword or phrase searching the Code, you can also browse by title name and number if you already have a U.S.C. citation. Find the U.S. Code Title that deals with aliens and nationality.

Hint: To answer this question, go to the GPO search screen at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/index.html and choose "Browse" from the left side of the screen, under "Database Features."

a. What is the Title number for this topic?
b.How many chapters are included in this title?

U.S. Code: Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII) Web site
When a bill is passed and becomes an Act, it is given a Public Law number, then a Statutes at Large (Stat) number and finally a U.S. Code Title and Section number. But sometimes it is also referred to by a "Popular name" such as the "Lemon Law." Using the Popular name table at the Cornell U.S. Code site can be useful to find the Act’s Public Law Number and its U.S.C. citation.

Search an Act by its "Popular Name" to Find its Public Law Number and its Location in the current U.S. Code at the LII site:
(Note that you will use this search to answer questions 4-7.)

4. The Cornell U.S. Code site at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ allows you to search by title and section number, table of contents, or by popular name. Search the Cornell Popular name table for the "Copyright Amendments Act of 1992." What was the Public Law number?

Hint: Go to the Cornell U.S. Code site at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/. Under "Ways to access material" located on the right side of the screen, click on "Table of Popular Names", and open "Popular Names of Acts Beginning with C." Although you can scroll down to the acts beginning with "copyright" it is quicker to use the "find" feature (PC users: hold down the control key and f key/ Mac users: hold down the command key and f key and a "find" box will pop up. Type in the term "copyright" and you will be taken to the term in the listóand it will be highlighted). Click "find next" until you get to the "Copyright Amendments Act of 1992." Using the find feature is much faster than scrolling through all the results starting with the letter "c."

What was the Public Law number?

5. Working off of the above question, what was the Statutes at Large (Stat.) number?

6. Working off of the above question, click on the Public Law number. You will be brought to a summary screen at which point you should first click on the link labeled "Major Congressional Actions" to find out if this bill was ever signed by the President. Scroll down the page after clicking on the "Major Congressional Actions" link and find out on what date the bill was signed by the President.

On what date was the Bill signed by the President?

7. After a bill is passed into law it is referred to as a Public Law or an Act. Various pieces of an Act may be scattered throughout the Code, so the best way to read an Act in its entirety is to read the Act as it was first passed. (However, one must also visit the current Code and read the section of the Act that one is researching to make sure it (1) has not been repealed and is still law and (2) to view any later amendments, if any were passed.)

Now that you have learned that the(above) Bill was passed and signed by the President, it’s time to read the Act. Return to the summary screen and click on "Text of Legislation" to read the Act. You will then see links to 5 versions of the Act. Be sure to click on the link to "5. Copyright Amendments Act of 1992 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) [S.756]." This is the final version of the Act that was passed by both the House and Senate. Click Section 102.

Can there ever be a case where the proprietor of a copyright is entitled to a renewal and extension of his or her copyright after the initial 28-year copyright period? Yes No

8. Go to http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/#SECTIONS and enter this citation into the form: Title 12, Section 612.

What is the title of section 612?

9. After a bill is passed into law, the federal agency responsible for that area of law will often pass regulations to carry out and enforce the law. These regulations are published first in the Federal Register and later in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The LII U.S. Code has a unique feature that the other Code sites do not have: a link to the corresponding (parallel) federal regulations to the U.S. Code sections (if there are any). Notice the links to the right of the text of Title 12, Section 612. Click on the blue link labeled, "Parallel authorities-CFR.

What is the CFR citation that corresponds to Title 12, Section 612?

10. Click on the red link in the above question to read all the parallel regulations to Title 12, Section 612. You will notice that the U.S. Code and the CFR citations do not match up. Don’t worry. They rarely do. You are viewing the correct "parallel authorities." Click on Section 261.3 of the CFR and you will also notice that the CFR rules and regulations that correspond to Title 12, Section 612 of the U.S. Code are much more lengthy than the U.S. Code section.

According to Section 261.3 (b) of the CFR who may certify the authenticity of any of the bank board’s records? Secretary of the Board President of the Board Bank Vice-President

11. Find the House report number that includes legislative history about Title 17 of the U.S. Code dealing with "Duration of Copyright: Subsisting Copyrights.

Hint: Go to the Cornell site http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/#SECTIONS. This site enables you to search with a citation template but since you don’t know the U.S. Code section number, scroll down to "Table of Contents (by Title listing)" and select Title 17. This will open up a list of chapters for Title17. Click on the chapter titled "Duration of Copyright" and then click on the section that deals with "Subsisting copyrights." Now you have the text of the Code section as well as a "Notes" link on the right hand side of the page. Click on the "Notes" link and you will be taken to "Historical and Revision Notes," which includes discussion from the House Report.

What is the House report number that includes legislative history about Title 17 of the U.S. Code dealing with "Duration of Copyright: Subsisting Copyrights?"

12. What is the U.S. Code title and chapter that deals with export standards for grapes and plums?

Hint: Go to the H of R Office of the Law Revision Counsel site at http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml and type in the search words: export standards grapes plums and place the "and" boolean connector between each word. You may need to scroll to the right in order to read the entire screen and find the correct answer.

What is the U.S. Code title and chapter that deals with export standards for grapes and plums?

13. To search word variations and plurals, you can add a wildcard (the asterisk--*) to the end of the your search term and the H of R’s search engine will return all words starting with that search term. For example, entering the search term sink* into a search query box, would retrieve sink, sinks, sinking, etc. You need to find references to research about lead paint abatement and how lead can most effectively be removed from the porch of a house. You can find some of this information by searching the current version of the U.S. Code. You are not sure if the code section would refer to "porch" or "porches" or "paint" or "painting" or "paints" and you want to avoid having to type in all those word variations. This is when you would use the asterisk wild card. Find what title and section deals with the topic.

Hint: Go to http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml. Type the following keywords into the search box: lead paint research porch, with the asterisk wild card after each word (to represent unlimited characters), and then connect each keyword with the "and" Boolean connector.

What is the Title and Code Section for this topic?

14. The more you know about a section of the code, the more likely you will find the relevant section. You can enter keywords and phrases and even parts of a Code citation into the search boxes. You want to find the section of the Code that deals with "Partial-birth abortions" and whether there are any exceptions to performing this procedure. You know the law is somewhere in Title 18 of the U.S. Code.

Hint: Use the current version of the Code at http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml and into the Search Word query box enter the phrase "partial birth abortion*" (note we are adding an asterisk to the word "abortion" in case the section uses the word "abortions") and then enter "18" (without the quotation marks) into the Title search query box. You will see many results but you should select the result that has the "100" score—this means this result has all of your search terms and is the most relevant. (Note that other results have scores of 81 down to 44—which means they may not have all your search terms.)

What is the section of the Code that deals with "Partial-birth abortions?"

Are there any exceptions to performing this procedure? Yes No

15. Search the H of R web site, using the 2000 edition laws through 1/2/01 of the U.S. Code, for sections that contain "wheat" but not "corn"? How many documents are there?

Hint: Start at http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml. Type: "wheat not corn" (do not use quotation marks) into the "Search Word(s)" query box. Click search. Look at the top left side of the page for the answer (there is no need for you to count the results—they are tallied for you). For further search help, a link to "boolean and proximity connectors" is provided at the top of the page.

How many documents are there?

16. The H of R site allows searching by topic. For example, you can retrieve all documents that relate to "grapes," but that are not necessarily about the word "grapes," by adding an exclamation point to the end of the search word. Go to http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml and type grapes! into the "Search term" query box and click on search. In the results list, notice the result that begins with "Cellar Treatment and Classification of…."

Click on this section and tell what this section is about: Grapes Wine Beer

17. The H or R’s site includes older versions of the U.S. Code than the GPO site does. What is the earliest Code and what is the date that the laws in that version extend to?

Hint: Go to http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml and scroll down to "Select a prior version of the code to search." Click on "prior version of the Code." Scroll down the Office of Law Revision list to the oldest version (on the Internet) of the U.S. Code.

What is the earliest Code?
What is the date to which that version of the laws extend?

18. When did Senator Biden introduce a bill to create "National Veterans Awareness Week"? Go to http://thomas.loc.gov. The Library of Congress Thomas website allows searching by word or phrase, bill number, or sponsor. Under "Browse Bills by sponsor" use the "Select a Senator" feature and pull down the menu to select "Biden, Joseph." Click "go." The list is long, so be sure to use your "find" function and type in the term "Veteran" and you will be taken to the term in the list—and it will be highlighted. (PC users: hold down the control key and f key/ Mac users: hold down the command key and f key and a "find" box will pop up).

When did Senator Biden introduce a bill to create "National Veterans Awareness Week"?

19. Find the 107th Congress H of R Committee report on the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Section 104 deals with "National Council of what"?

Hint: Click on "Committee Reports" on the left column of the Thomas site or go directly to http://thomas.loc.gov/cp109/cp109query.html. Click on the "107th Congress." Unselect "All House Committees," "All Senate Committees" and "All Other Committees" (which is the default search mode) by clicking off the check mark in each box. Then, under House Committees, use the down arrow to select "Homeland Security." Navigate down to the bottom of the page and click search. The search result provides links to the full text of the bill as well as a table of contents. Use the table of contents to find the heading for section 104.

Section 104 of the 107th Congress H of R Committee report on the Homeland Security Act of 2002 deals with "National Council of what"?

20. When a bill has been agreed to in identical form by both bodies, a copy of the bill is enrolled (ENR placed next to the bill number indicates enrolled). Simply because a bill is "enrolled" doesn’t mean, however, that it will become law. It must be presented to the President for his signature (or veto). Find all enrolled bills sent to the President dealing with privacy over the course of multiple congresses. Of these, which two have "telephone" in the title? Go to the home page of Thomas and from the left column, select "Bills, Resolutions" or simply go to http://thomas.loc.gov/home/bills_res.html. Select "Search Multiple Congresses" at the top of the page. Type in the search term "privacy" and under "Select Congress" use the "check all" button. Next, scroll down and select the radio buttons "Enrolled Bills Sent to the President" and "Both House and Senate." Click the search button. The fastest way to find which of the over one hundred bills have "telephone" in the title is to use your find function. Begin at the top of the search results page and using the find box type in "telephone."

Three bills will be highlighted. Which two are they? , &

21. In question 20, you learned that 3bills were enrolled dealing with Telephones and Privacy. To find out if an enrolled bill became a public law, you must review the "Bill Summary & Status File" link for the specific bill. Working from your answer to question #20, click on the Telephone bill that was introduced in the Senate (the Telephone Consumer bill) and tell whether it became a public law?

Hint: After clicking on the bill number, select the "Link to the Bill Summary & Status File." The answer will be found on the left side of the screen, next to the black bolded words "Latest Major Action."

Did it become a public law? Yes No

22. To read the Senate Telephone Consumer bill from question #21, click on the blue link titled "Text of Legislation." You will find that there are links to 5 versions of this bill. Choose the one ending with ENR. Once the bill is opened, scroll down the screen and click on Section 104, "AM Radio Service" (notice the option for the "Printer Friendly Display" which you would use if you wanted to print out the entire law as one document).

Which Act did this bill amend? Section 331 of the Communications Act of 1934 Section 331 of the Communications Act of 1974

23. Congress passes both bills and resolutions. Find the 2000 (106th Congress) House Resolution to commend President Clinton for supporting the efforts of former South African President Nelson Mandela to bring peace to Burundi. What was the number of this resolution?

Hint: Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/home/bills_res.html and select "Search Bill Text" and then select 106th Congress. Enter your keywords, such as Burundi and Mandela and Clinton into the Word/Phrase search box (use the "and" boolean connectors between each word).

What was the number of this resolution?

24. GPO (Government Printing Office) also has a bill web site. GPO’s site, however, does not show the status of the bill, so we generally prefer using the Library of Congress’ site.

Who introduced a U. S. Senate bill designating a U.S. Postal Service facility as the "Ray Charles Post Office Building" and what was the bill number? You do not know the bill number and you think the year was either 2003-2004 or 2005-2006.

Hint: Go to the GPO "Congressional Bills Search" at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/search.html. You can select more than one year to search. (If you are using a PC, click on the year 2005-2006 and then hold down the control key and click on 2003-2004. If you are using a MAC hold down the <Command> key and use the mouse to highlight individual databases.) After selecting the years, type in the phrase "Ray Charles" (surrounded by quotation marks). You will see many results, but look only for the Senate bill, which will be indicated with an "S" and click on the link titled, "Text" to view the full-text of the bill.

Who introduced a U. S. Senate bill designating a U.S. Postal Service facility as the "Ray Charles Post Office Building"?

What was the number of this bill?