There is a high likelihood that there will be similar-sounding laws to the one you have chosen. To make sure you're looking at the correct one in the database, you want to first find the Public Law number for the one you have chosen. A public law number is the unique identifier that distinguishes each statute from another. It looks like this: PL 107-56 or Pub. L. 107-56. The first number is the congressional session when the law was passed. The second number identifies the order in the session that it was passed. The example above was a law passed in the 107th congress (2001-2002), and it was the 56th law passed in that session.
Most noteworthy legislation has a Wikipedia entry written for it. Those entries will include citation information for the law. The example above is the public law for the USA Patriot Act. I searched for that name in Wikipedia to find the citation information. This will also show you the Statute At Large citation, another unique identifier for this law. Statute at Large show the user where each law fits inside the larger US Code. It organizes laws contextually instead of chronologically. Either citation can be used in our legislative databases, but I find it easier to use the public law number.
**Note: Using Wikipedia to find the the legal citation is an acceptable use of the site. You should not be citing Wikipedia as a source in your papers. Only use it as a way to find credible sources that you can site.
Once you've found the citation information for your selected legislation, you can use this database to get access to information about it. There should be similar information on Proquest's Congressional Publications and Congress.gov, so choosing a database is personal choice. However Congress.gov only has digitized information since the mid-70s.
The US Congress website makes available a lot of the information you will need for this assignment. This walkthrough will illustrate how to get to that information, using the example statute above. Not everything will be found on this page. You may also have to reference other sources to find some of the required information.
Start at the Congres.gov site. Enter your public law into the search box at the top of the page and change the search parameters from Current Congress to Legislation using the dropdown menu to the left of the search box. There is a specific format to enter the public law - Congressional Session "PL" Law Number. For our example, it will look like: 107PL56
There should only be one result that comes up based on that search. Double check on the name to make sure it's the correct law. This will be just below the linked top line. The information at the very top will either be the House or Senate resolution number, which indicates the house where it originated. Click on that number to see the record for that law.
This page gives you detailed information about the law. The overview at the top will give you:
The Tabs below the overview will give you more detailed information about the law
Once you've found the citation information for your selected legislation, you can use this database to get access to information about it. There should be similar information on Proquest's Congressional Publications and Congress.gov, so choosing a database is personal choice. However Congress.gov only has digitized information since the mid-70s.
Congressional Pulblications makes available a lot of the information you will need for this assignment. This walkthrough will illustrate how to get to that information, using the example statute above. Not everything will be found in this database. You may also have to reference other sources to find some of the required information.
Go to Congressional Publications (see link above) and enter the Public Law into the search box. Make sure to deselect the "search all content types" box on the left side of the page and select Bills and Laws. Click Search.
This takes you to the results page. Different results will present different information:
