Statutes are enacted by the legislative branch of government (whether federal or state) to regulate areas within the legislature’s jurisdiction, as granted by the Constitution.
The United States Congress (by authority of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution) has reserved to itself the power to regulate certain activities and functions, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, federal taxation, customs matters, the postal system, admiralty matters, bankruptcy, and diplomatic matters. It has the exclusive right to pass laws affecting these subjects. Congress also has power to pass legislation in areas not specifically assigned to it by the Constitution — such as labor and pollution control — that fall within its enumerated powers.
A law passed by Congress is not effective until it is signed into law by the president or has been repassed over the president’s veto by a two-thirds majority of each house of the Congress, or if the president takes no action within 10 days of receiving it. Laws are published at the end of each session of Congress in the Statutes at Large (Stat.), where the laws are arranged chronologically, and are ultimately compiled in the United States Code (U.S.C.), where the laws are grouped by subject. (Various private publishers also publish annotated editions of the United States Code.) This Code is organized into 50 titles or general subject areas (see Table).
Titles of the United States Code
- General Provisions
- The Congress
- The President
- Flag and Seal, Seat of Government and the States
- Government Organization and Employees
- Surety Bonds [repealed, and most provisions covered under title 31]
- Agriculture
- Aliens and Nationality
- Arbitration
- Armed Forces
- Bankruptcy
- Banks and Banking
- Census
- Coast Guard
- Commerce and Trade
- Conservation
- Copyrights
- Crimes and Criminal Procedure
- Customs Duties
- Education
- Food and Drugs
- Foreign Relations and Intercourse
- Highways
- Hospitals and Asylums
- Indians
- Internal Revenue Code
- Intoxicating Liquors
- Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
- Labor
- Mineral Lands and Mining
- Money and Finance
- National Guard
- Navigation and Navigable Waters
- Navy [eliminated by the enactment of title 10]
- Patents
- Patriotic Societies and Observances
- Pay and Allowances of the Uniformed Services
- Veterans’ Benefits
- Postal Service
- Public Buildings, Property, and Works
- Public Contracts
- The Public Health and Welfare
- Public Lands
- Public Printing and Documents
- Railroads
- Shipping
- Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs
- Territories and Insular Possessions
- Transportation
- War and National Defense (with Appendix)
Each year the state legislatures also pass many laws, which become effective when they either receive gubernatorial approval or are passed over the governor’s veto. The exact titles of the state session laws — that is, the collections of statutes passed in each session of the state legislature — vary, as do the titles given to the state law compilations. In Michigan, for example, they are known as Michigan Compiled Laws; in Minnesota they are calledMinnesota Statutes Annotated; in North Dakota they are called the North Dakota Century Code. (Like the United States Code, some of these compilations are published in annotated editions by private law-book publishers.)
Relationship of constitutions, statutes, and the courts
Because of the supremacy clause in the Constitution, federal laws must comply only with the federal Constitution, but the laws of any state must comply with provisions of both the state constitution and the federal Constitution. In a conflict between a federal and a state law, the federal law preempts the state law.
Statutory law is superior to case law as a source of law, and courts ordinarily are bound to apply the relevant statutory law to the cases that they decide. However, if a state legislature were to pass a law in violation of the state constitution — for example, a law requiring that all textbooks be submitted to a review board — the appellate court in the state could declare the law unconstitutional. Courts will also interpret statutes and supply legal principles when no rule exists. Once the court issues a decision, the decision becomes part of the case law on the subject.