Lawmaking in the United States

The Constitution of the United States and its amendments form the basis of our legal rights and privileges.  Only laws that fall within the framework of the Constitution and the legal precedents regarding the Constitution's intent can remain in effect.

The text of the Constitution  is available on the behind the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor in print; and available at the THOMAS web site http://thomas.loc.gov

Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation is an annotated version updated by supplements which include the latest interpretations.  Available as Senate document 103-6, Serial Set 14152.

The United States has three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial.  Laws may evolve from the action of each branch.  A legislative history generally traces a bill from its introduction in Congress through the legislative process.  Research on the history of a law may also include tracing administrative law (executive branch) and case law (judicial branch).

Legislative Law

Legislative law originates as a bill or resolution introduced either independently, jointly, or concurrently in the House of Representatives and/or the Senate.  After introduction, the bill is sent to the appropriate committee(s) for study.  The committee(s) may choose to let the bill "die" by taking no action, or it may report its findings to the full chamber for further action.  Any number of bills on the same topic may be introduced into each chamber with different text and each chamber may alter each text of a bill originally introduced for consideration and it may even include the text from several bills, amendments, and/or riders.  A bill passed in the House may differ from the version passed in the Senate.  When differences arise, they are are resolved through the negotiations of a joint committee.  Both chambers must agree on an identical form of the bill before it can go to the President for further action.

The Daley Library has the full-text of bills from the 81st Congress (1949) to the 106th Congress (2001) in microfiche.  As of October 1, 2001, the full-text of bills are only available electronically via the GPO Access web site http://www.access.gpo.gov

House and Senate publications are cited as:

Legislative Process

A bill or resolution may be introduced only by a member of Congress.  It is introduced and read into the Congressional Record, the daily transcript of action on the floor of Congress.  Once read, it is placed on the Calendar and referred to Committee.  The Committee then will mark-up the bill (edit the language) and may hold hearings to gather information from experts.  Once the hearings are concluded, the Committee votes whether to revise the proposed language, refer to another Committee, or report back to the full chamber.  This report is scheduled for floor debate and then a vote.  Amendments and riders to the bill may be offered according to the rules of the chamber.  Once the legislation passes in one chamber, it is sent to the the other chamber (engrossed) and  the entire process starts again.  Both Chambers must approve the same language of a bill before it can be sent (enrolled).  At any point in the process, the bill can "die".  The President then is required to sign or veto the legislation. After a bill or resolution is passed by both chambers of Congress and approved by the President, or by a veto override, it becomes either a Public Law (one that applies to the general public) or a Private Law (one that applies to one person or to a specific group of people).  Laws are cited as:

For more detailed information on the legislative process, see:  How our laws are made (available on the THOMAS web site at: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html)

Annotated list of legislative finding tools

Administrative Law

Administrative law  originates in the executive branch of government..  It may be a decision, rule, or regulation issued by a department or an agency of the federal government, or it may be an Executive Order or a Proclamation issued by the President.  There are not any comprehensive indexes exclusive to administrative law decisions.  Executive agencies which publish decisions include the Department of the Interior, Federal Maritime Protection Board, Federal Labor Board, Federal Communications Commission, etc.

Regulations

After legislation is passed by Congress, it is the responsibility of the appropriate federal agencies within the executive branch to administer and implement the law.  For example, responsibility for the Safe Drinking Water Act is assigned to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Rules and regulations are the result of a lengthy process, so it may be difficult to find any regulatory action on recent legislation.  The process includes:  (1) the announcement of proposed rules or regulations in the Federal Register (FR), (2) a public comment period, generally at least 60 days, (3) agency consideration of the public comments received, (4) public hearings may be held on the proposed regulations, and (5) the announcement of the final rule and its effective date, with summarization of the comments and the changes made as a result, in the Federal Register.  Rules and regulations are organized in 50 titles by broad subject in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  These titles are NOT the same 50 titles of the United States Code (USC).  Newly issued Executive Orders are published in the Federal Register.  Executive Orders and Proclamations that have the force of law are published in Title 3 of the CFR.

Rules and regulations are cited as:

Annotated list of administrative/regulatory finding tools

Case Law

Case law originates in the judicial branch of government and examines the validity of laws and regulations as they relate to the Constitution and to existing law (legal precedent).  The court system is hierarchical, with the Supreme Court of the U.S. being the highest in the country.  Its decisions are published in several sources: (1) U.S. Reports, the official government edition.  Like the slip laws, decisions are first issued as pre-prints before the bound volumes are published.  (2) Supreme Court Reporter, a privately published version of the U.S. Reports that includes some annotation, and (3) U.S. Law Week, a privately published periodical that tracks "every Supreme Court petition and case on the docket, from filing to final disposition".  These non-government publications do not include verbatim transcripts of all cases.  They do provide a summary of the legal issues and the opinions (including dissenting opinions) of the Court.  Cases heard at the Appellate and District Court levels are reported in the Federal Reporter and the Federal Supplement respectively.

Cases may be cited as:

NOTE: The Daley Library does not subscribe to the legal electronic databases Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis, which include many of the resources described in this handout.

Annotated list of case law finding tools

For a good, basic overview of how a bill becomes a law, please see Ben's Guide at http://bensguide.gpo.gov/9-12/lawmaking/index.html

Tracing Federal Legislation