US Statutes API: USC, CFR & State Codes
The complete US Code, the CFR, and every state and territory code (4M+ sections) through one self-serve REST and MCP API. Every section cited and linked to its official source.
The hard way
Build the pipeline yourself
- ✗All 52 government sites, each in its own format
- ✗PDFs and XML with broken tables and footnotes
- ✗Section hierarchy, amendments, and metadata
- ✗A search index you build and keep in sync
- ✗Re-scrape it all, forever, as the law changes
Weeks of setup. Maintenance that never ends.
The API
Or make one call
- ✓Indexed and normalized to one schema
- ✓Cited, with a link to the official source
- ✓Relevance-ranked, filter by state or corpus
- ✓Refreshed on a per-source schedule
One API key. Live today.
We open-sourced the hard part: the scrapers
Clean, structured bulk access to the compiled state codes has never existed in the open. Open US Law publishes that missing layer and the scrapers that build it: every state statutory code plus the US Code, the CFR, regulations, constitutions, and court rules, normalized to JSONL from official government sources. Scripts are Apache-2.0; the compiled data is CC BY 4.0. Clone it to self-host, or use the hosted API below to skip the pipeline entirely.
12 endpoints. Every layer of US primary law.
Base URLhttps://api.vaquill.aiSection lookup
Once you have an ID or citation
/api/v1/us/statutes/resolveResolve a Bluebook citation straight to its section
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}Get a section, citation, title, and hierarchy metadata
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/bodyGet the full text of a section, HTML and plain text
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/relatedGet the sections immediately before and after this one
/api/v1/us/statutes/sectionsBatch metadata for up to 50 sections in one call
Discover the corpus
Free, browse before you query
Go deeper on a section
Once you have an ID
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/changesGet this section's change history
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/cited-byFind the sections that cite this one
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/definitionsGet the defined terms that govern this section
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/cross-stateCompare this provision against other states
One request, cited results.
curl -X POST https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/us/statutes/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VAQUILL_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query": "qualified immunity", "corpusType": "USC", "limit": 5}'{
"total": 3,
"creditsConsumed": 4,
"results": [
{
"actId": "USC_T6_C4_S1104",
"citation": "6 U.S.C. § 1104 (2024)",
"title": "Immunity for reports of suspected terrorist activity",
"corpusType": "USC",
"state": "federal",
"year": 2024,
"relevanceScore": 0.73,
"excerpt": "Any person who, in good faith...",
"displayPath": "Title 6 > Chapter 4 > § 1104",
"htmlUrl": "https://statutes-us.vaquill.ai/...htm",
"pdfUrl": "https://statutes-us.vaquill.ai/...pdf",
"externalUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/..."
}
]
}Everything the API covers
One schema over every layer of US primary law: 4M+ sections across every US jurisdiction, each cited and linked to its official source.
US Code sections
53 titles, weekly
CFR sections
49 active titles, daily
Federal Register rules
final + proposed, 1994 to present
State statute sections
in every US jurisdiction
State regulation rules
46 states
Executive orders
+ proclamations & memos
Agency guidance documents
30 sources across 16 agencies
State constitution sections
51 jurisdictions
State court rules
46 states
Federal Rules of Procedure
FRCP, FRCrP, FRE, FRAP, FRBP + SCOTUS Rules
State agency guidance (bulletins)
49 states, pilot
US Constitution sections
articles + amendments
Federal: the US Code and CFR
The complete codified federal corpus, with in-force counts and historical (repealed, omitted, transferred) sections preserved for reproducible research.
| Corpus | Sections | In force | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Code (statutes) | 54,853 | 46,530 | 53 |
| CFR (regulations) | 219,424 | 218,926 | 49 |
| USC + CFR | 274,245 | 265,456 | 102 |
Plus the Federal Register (202,448 rules, final and proposed, 1994 to present), 3,820 executive orders, the US Constitution, the Federal Rules of Procedure, 21,686 agency guidance documents across 16 agencies, the US Sentencing Guidelines, and US tax treaties.
State: all 52 statute codes
Every state code in the same schema as federal. Scope a query to one jurisdiction with state: "tx", or resolve a citation like Tex. Penal Code § 19.02 straight to its section. Plus state regulations (1.16M+ rules, 46 states), state constitutions (51 jurisdictions), state court rules (46 states), and state agency guidance / bulletins (49 states, pilot).
Ala. Code
Alaska Stat.
Ariz. Rev. Stat.
Ark. Code
Cal. [Code]
Colo. Rev. Stat.
Conn. Gen. Stat.
Del. Code
D.C. Code
Fla. Stat.
Ga. Code
Haw. Rev. Stat.
Idaho Code
Ill. Comp. Stat.
Ind. Code
Iowa Code
Kan. Stat.
Ky. Rev. Stat.
La. Rev. Stat.
Me. Rev. Stat.
Md. Code
Mass. Gen. Laws
Mich. Comp. Laws
Minn. Stat.
Miss. Code
Mo. Rev. Stat.
Mont. Code
Neb. Rev. Stat.
Nev. Rev. Stat.
N.H. Rev. Stat.
N.J. Stat.
N.M. Stat.
N.Y. [Cons. Laws]
N.C. Gen. Stat.
N.D. Cent. Code
Ohio Rev. Code
Okla. Stat.
Or. Rev. Stat.
Pa. Cons. Stat.
P.R. Laws Ann.
R.I. Gen. Laws
S.C. Code
S.D. Codified Laws
Tenn. Code
Tex. [Code]
Utah Code
Vt. Stat.
Va. Code
Wash. Rev. Code
W. Va. Code
Wis. Stat.
Wyo. Stat.
Security & Compliance
Legal data demands serious security. Here is how we protect your queries and your clients' data.
Bearer token auth
Keys prefixed vq_key_, rotate any time from the dashboard.
HTTPS only
Encrypted in transit; plain HTTP is rejected.
No query logging
We never store your searches, only usage for billing.
SOC 2 in progress
Type II underway; trust docs on request.
US data residency
Servers and legal data stay on US infrastructure.
IP whitelisting
IP-based access restrictions on enterprise plans.
Working in legal aid or civil justice?
Every layer of US primary law: the US Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Register agency rules, the statute codes of all 52 US jurisdictions (50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico), state regulations, state and federal constitutions, the Federal Rules of Procedure, and every Executive Order, Proclamation, and Presidential Memo since 2015. About 4M+ sections in one schema, each with a citation and a link to the official source.
Stop building legal data pipelines.
The rest of the API surface
One corpus, several ways to reach it. Call the REST API, wire it into your agent over MCP, download the open dataset, or read the coverage in detail.
Run live requests from your dashboard and see the real response before you write a line of code.
Webhook or email the moment a jurisdiction or corpus you watch changes, down to the section.
Statute search + section lookup as native tools in Claude, Cursor, and VS Code.
The full corpus as Parquet on Hugging Face. Public-domain text, CC BY 4.0 compilation.
Endpoints, parameters, response schemas, and code samples.