How to Search the US Code and Trust the Result

Short answer: start with uscode.house.gov, run by the House's Office of the Law Revision Counsel, the office that prepares the Code. The US Code is the set of general and permanent federal laws, sorted by subject. If you know the citation, jump straight to it. If you only know the topic, search for the words the law itself would use on govinfo or Cornell's Legal Information Institute (LII), because we found no keyword search on the House site on 12 October 2026. Then read the source credit, the line of law citations under the text, and the page's currency date.

Written and checked on 12 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; check the cited statute or opinion before relying on it.

TL;DR

• Three kinds of search exist: by citation, by words and by browsing. Word searches need the law's own vocabulary.
• One office publishes the Code. govinfo.gov carries yearly editions of the same text, the newest being 2024. LII is a free reading site run by a law school.
• Every section page shows how current it is. On 12 October 2026 the House site was current through Public Law 119-120 (the 120th law of the 119th Congress), and LII through 119-118.
• Only 27 of the 54 titles are law in their own right. For the rest, the original Act wins if the Code differs.

Official text, as of 12 October 2026

Citation: 1 U.S.C. 204(a), the rule on what the Code proves, and 2 U.S.C. 285b, which tells the Office of the Law Revision Counsel to prepare it. Read: 1 U.S.C. 204 on the House site, current through Public Law 119-120 (October 7, 2026).

Section 204(a) says the current edition of the Code and its supplement "establish prima facie the laws of the United States, general and permanent in their nature," but "whenever titles of such Code shall have been enacted into positive law the text thereof shall be legal evidence of the laws therein contained."

What changed in 2025 and 2026: nothing we found in the law itself. The credit line of section 204 lists only its 1947 act (July 30, 1947, ch. 388, 61 Stat. 638), section 285b lists acts of 1974 and 1976, and the Classification Tables (the office's lists of Code sections that new laws changed) for the 119th Congress, dated October 7, 2026, list neither. The House site did change. It now says it is "operating in a temporary format", and this post describes it as we found it.

What the US Code is

The Law Revision Counsel calls the Code "a consolidation and codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States." Congress passes laws one Act at a time, and the Code files their lasting parts under 54 titles, each a broad subject, such as title 29, Labor, or title 42, The Public Health and Welfare. The office is a nonpartisan part of the House, and 2 U.S.C. § 285b tells it to prepare and publish the Code. Congress set the Code up in 1926. Treaties, agency regulations and state laws stay out, and so do most temporary or special laws, such as a yearly spending bill or a law that applies to one named place.

Two kinds of title. The office puts it plainly: "A positive law title of the Code is itself a Federal statute. A non-positive law title of the Code is an editorial compilation of Federal statutes." Title 10, Armed Forces, is positive law. Title 42 is not. It is made of separate Acts, such as the Public Health Service Act and the Social Security Act, that editors arranged. Today 27 of the 54 titles are positive law, marked with an asterisk on the House site.

Under 1 U.S.C. § 204, positive law text is "legal evidence" of the law, and the rest is only prima facie evidence, meaning taken as correct until someone shows otherwise. The Statutes at Large are the official publication of each session's laws. Where a non-positive title differs from them, the office says the Statutes at Large text "prevails". Our guide to popular names of US laws works through examples.

Editions and release points. The printed Code gets a new main edition every six years, with five annual supplements between, and the law recognizes the printed version as evidence. Print necessarily lags. The online version is updated "throughout a congressional session on an ongoing basis", and each update is a release point, a dated snapshot of the whole Code. On 12 October 2026 the current one was Public Law 119-120 (10/07/2026). For the Code as files for software, see pulling US Code sections programmatically.

What each tool does when you search

The House site (uscode.house.gov). A notice on every page says it is "currently operating in a temporary format" and that "some website features and functionality are temporarily unavailable." What worked on 12 October 2026: browsing by title, a Jump To box for a title and section, a Cite Checker, the Popular Name Tool, the Classification Tables and downloads. We found no keyword search box. Each section page shows "Text contains those laws in effect through Public Law 119-120 (October 7, 2026)." The format is called temporary, so check what the site offers when you visit.

govinfo.gov (the Government Publishing Office). Its collection is titled "United States Code, 1994 to Present", with one edition per year as web pages and PDFs. It has a basic search box, an advanced form, a citation form (year, title, section) and browsing by year then title. Its editions end at 2024, so it suits citing a fixed, dated edition and does not show what Congress changed last month. On 12 October 2026 the question "unsolicited commercial email opt out" returned no results from the Code. The wording "commercial electronic mail opt out" returned six, and the first was 15 U.S.C. 7704. All came from the 2024 edition.

Cornell LII (law.cornell.edu/uscode). Each section page has the text, a Notes tab, an Authorities (CFR) tab listing related rules in the Code of Federal Regulations, and a "How current is this?" link. Its search can be limited to the Code. The first question above returned 363 results, and 15 U.S.C. 7704 ranked seventh, behind the Act's sentencing section and findings and four sections from other laws, including a telephone law (47 U.S.C. 227). LII is the easiest to read and its ranking is the loosest.

The three kinds of search

By citation. A citation is a short address, such as 15 U.S.C. § 7704: U.S.C. means United States Code, § means section, 15 is the title and 7704 is the section. Type the title and section into the House site's Jump To box or LII's citation box. govinfo's form also needs a year. Our guide to reading a citation covers the format.

By words. Pick two or three words the law itself would use. Section 7704 says "electronic mail" dozens of times and never says "email", which is why the first govinfo search above found nothing. If a search returns nothing, drop a word or use the statute's wording. If you get hundreds of hits, put the key phrase in quote marks. A word you find may be defined elsewhere in the chapter, as our guide to how statutes define their own words shows. If you know the law by name, use the popular name route instead.

By browsing. Open the likely title and scan its chapter headings. This helps when you do not know the law's vocabulary.

Which sites are official

The Law Revision Counsel's About page says its online versions come from the same database the Government Publishing Office (GPO) uses to print volumes of the Code, and its FAQ calls versions from private companies unofficial. govinfo says the Law Revision Counsel provided its text and tells researchers to verify results against the printed version. LII's terms say that "neither the LII nor Cornell warrants that the information is complete or accurate", and it claims copyright in its own markup, though not in government text (see are statutes copyrighted). For anything you will sign or file, confirm the text on a government source. Our provenance guide lists questions to ask of any source.

How to read a result

• The source credit. It names each Act that enacted, amended or otherwise affected the section. For 42 U.S.C. § 1983 it starts with "R.S. § 1979", then lists two public laws (numbered Acts of Congress), from 1979 and 1996. A Codification note traces the old section to an act of April 20, 1871.
• Notes. Everything under the credit. A prior provisions note lists older sections that had the same number. A statutory note is real law printed as a note, with the same legal force as a section. An effective date note gives the date a provision took effect when that differs from the day it was enacted.
• Brackets. The Law Revision Counsel's guide says you can assume almost every citation in square brackets was added by the editors.

How current is the result

A public law is a numbered Act of Congress, such as Public Law 108-187, the 187th law of the 108th Congress. The House site displays each section's currency date above its text. LII's currency page said on 12 October 2026: "The US Code as published is current through Pub. L. 119-118, which was published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel on 2026-10-02". The House site was already at 119-120. A gap like that is why you read the date. On govinfo, the year in the package name is the edition, and laws passed since then are not in it.

To confirm a section has not changed since you read it:

1. Find the newest law in the credit line and note its date.
2. Compare it with the page's currency line.
3. Check the Classification Tables, which list the Code sections that recent laws amended. The ones we read ran through Public Law 119-118. The Cite Checker page promises notice of laws not yet reflected in a section. In the temporary format it opens the section page, which showed no such notice for 15 U.S.C. 7704.
4. Write down the date you checked. Our amendment history guide explains what a change record can and cannot prove.

A worked search

Question: which federal law lets people opt out of marketing email, and has it changed?

1. Search by words. On govinfo, "unsolicited commercial email opt out" finds nothing in the Code, because the statute's phrase is "electronic mail". "Commercial electronic mail opt out" returns 15 U.S.C. 7704 first and the Act's findings, 7701, second. On LII the first wording ranks the Act's findings, 7701, second and 7704 seventh. Section 7701 lists the Act's findings (what Congress found as facts) and uses the phrase "opt-out". Public Law 108-187 is the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, the Act behind the chapter.
2. Open the section that states the rule. The best fit is 15 U.S.C. § 7704, Other protections for users of commercial electronic mail. Subsection (a)(3)(A) makes it unlawful to send a commercial email "that does not contain a functioning return electronic mail address or other Internet-based mechanism, clearly and conspicuously displayed" for asking to stop future emails. Subsection (a)(4)(A)(i) bars sending a covered message "more than 10 business days after the receipt of such request."
3. Read the credit. "Pub. L. 108-187, § 5, Dec. 16, 2003, 117 Stat. 2706." One law is listed and no later amending Act appears. A note says the section took effect on January 1, 2004.
4. Confirm currency. The House page says its text is current through Public Law 119-120 (October 7, 2026). The credit line is the same on govinfo's 2024 edition and on LII. The Classification Tables for the 119th Congress list no change to any title 15 section from 7701 to 7799.
5. Account for positive law. Title 15 has no asterisk, so it is non-positive law and the Act governs if the two differ. On govinfo, the two sentences quoted above read the same in section 5 of Public Law 108-187. For a filing, cite the Act too.

The Code section is not the whole rule. LII's Authorities (CFR) tab lists 16 CFR part 316, the Federal Trade Commission's CAN-SPAM Rule, whose section 316.5 also limits what a sender may demand of someone who opts out.

What goes wrong

1. Reading an old edition. A govinfo hit comes from one year's edition. Check the year in the address.
2. Treating a hit as the answer. A keyword search ranks by word match. A top hit may be a findings section that never states the rule, and everyday words such as "email" can miss a statute that says "electronic mail".
3. Missing a newer law. A yearly edition cannot include later laws, and one site's currency date can trail another's.
4. Assuming the Code is everything. Agency rules sit in the Code of Federal Regulations (see our regulation guide), and the Acts the Code is built from are in the session laws.
5. Trusting a copy of a copy. Many sites repeat the Code with no date. Go back to the publisher.

For the wider map of US law sources, start with US Law Data: The Complete Guide.

FAQ

What is the best way to search the US Code?

Use the citation if you have one. If not, search two or three of the law's own key words on govinfo or LII, or browse by title on the House site. Then check the currency date and the credit line.

Is Cornell LII the official US Code?

No. LII is a free site run by Cornell Law School, and its terms say it does not warrant that its information is complete or accurate. The Law Revision Counsel publishes the Code.

Is uscode.house.gov the official version?

It is the publisher's own site, built from the database used to print volumes of the Code. The office's FAQ says the printed Code is what the law recognizes as evidence, so for a court filing, check the printed Code too.

How do I know a section is still current?

Check the page's currency date, then read the credit line for the last law that affected the section. The Classification Tables list recent changes.

What does non-positive law mean?

Congress did not pass that title of the Code as law. It is an editors' arrangement of many Acts, and the Acts in the Statutes at Large govern if they differ.

Why does the Code not show every federal law?

It holds only general and permanent laws. Treaties, regulations and state laws are left out, and so are most temporary or special laws, such as yearly spending bills or laws that apply to one named place.

For the US statutes, regulations and court rules these laws sit in, see the US primary law API.

Priyansh Khodiyar

Co-Founder & CTO

Priyansh leads engineering and AI at Vaquill AI: the pipelines that pull statutes, regulations and court rules from every US jurisdiction's official publisher, and the REST API, MCP server and open dataset that serve them.