Editing United States Code (section)

==Versions and history==

===Early compilations===

Early efforts at codifying the Acts of Congress were undertaken by private publishers; these were useful shortcuts for research purposes, but had no official status. Congress undertook an official codification called the ''[[Revised Statutes of the United States]]'' approved June 22, 1874, for the laws in effect as of December 1, 1873. Congress re-enacted a corrected version in 1878. The 1874 version of the Revised Statutes were enacted as positive law, but the 1878 version was not and subsequent enactments of Congress were not incorporated into the official code, so that over time researchers once again had to delve through many volumes of the ''[[United States Statutes at Large|Statutes at Large]]''.

According to the preface to the Code, "From 1897 to 1907 a commission was engaged in an effort to codify the great mass of accumulating legislation. The work of the commission involved an expenditure of over $300,000, but was never carried to completion." Only the [[Criminal Code of 1909]] and the [[Judicial Code of 1911]] were enacted. In the absence of a comprehensive official code, private publishers once again collected the more recent statutes into unofficial codes. The first edition of the ''United States Code'' (published as Statutes at Large Volume 44, Part 1) includes cross-reference tables between the USC and two of these unofficial codes, ''United States Compiled Statutes Annotated'' by [[Thomson West|West Publishing Co.]] and ''Federal Statutes Annotated'' by Edward Thompson Co.

===Official code===
During the 1920s, some members of Congress revived the codification project, resulting in the approval of the United States Code by Congress in 1926.<ref>{{USStatute|69|440|44|777|1926|06|30}}; {{USStatute|69|441|44|778|1926|06|30}}.  44 Stat. 777 does not actually include the text of Public Law 69-440.  Under the entry for that law, it instead presents a brief editor's note explaining that Public Law 69-440 was separately published as part 1 of volume 44 of the Statutes at Large (to imply that the reader needs to look on the shelf for that other book).</ref>

The official version of the Code is published by the LRC ([[Office of the Law Revision Counsel]]) as a series of paper volumes. The first edition of the Code was contained in a single bound volume; today, it spans several large volumes. Normally, a new edition of the Code is issued every six years, with annual cumulative supplements identifying the changes made by Congress since the last "main edition" was published.<ref name="gpo.gov" />

The official code was last printed in 2018.

===Digital and Internet versions===
Both the [[Office of the Law Revision Counsel|LRC]] and the GPO offer electronic versions of the Code to the public. The LRC electronic version used to be as much as 18 months behind current legislation, but as of 2014 it is one of the most current versions available online. The United States Code is available from the LRC at [http://uscode.house.gov/ uscode.house.gov] in both HTML and XML bulk formats.<ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. House of Representatives publishes U.S. Code as open government data |first=Alexander B. |last=Howard |work=e-pluribusunum.com |date=July 30, 2013 |access-date=August 21, 2013 |url=http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/07/30/house-of-representatives-publishes-u-s-code-as-open-government-data/ |archive-date=August 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823214124/http://e-pluribusunum.com/2013/07/30/house-of-representatives-publishes-u-s-code-as-open-government-data/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Testers wanted: Beta Website for US Code Now Online |first=Daniel |last=Schuman |publisher=[[Sunlight Foundation]] |date=November 13, 2012 |access-date=August 21, 2013 |url=http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/11/13/testers-wanted-beta-website-for-us-code-now-online/ |archive-date=January 9, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109050355/http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/11/13/testers-wanted-beta-website-for-us-code-now-online/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The "United States Legislative Markup" (USLM) schema of the XML was designed to be consistent with the [[Akoma Ntoso]] project (from the [[United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs]]) XML schema,<ref>{{cite web |title=United States Legislative Markup: User Guide for the USLM Schema |publisher=[[Office of the Law Revision Counsel]] |date=July 2013 |access-date=August 25, 2013 |url=http://uscode.house.gov/download/resources/USLM-User-Guide.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927223531/http://uscode.house.gov/download/resources/USLM-User-Guide.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[LegalDocML|OASIS ''LegalDocML'']] technical committee standard will be based upon Akoma Ntoso.<ref>{{cite web |title=OASIS Puts Akoma Ntoso on the Standards Track |first=Tina |last=Gheen |date=April 23, 2012 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |url=http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2012/04/oasis-puts-akoma-ntoso-on-the-standards-track/ |access-date=August 25, 2013 |archive-date=February 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130219230905/http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2012/04/oasis-puts-akoma-ntoso-on-the-standards-track/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

A number of other online versions are freely available, such as [[Cornell University|Cornell]]'s [[Legal Information Institute]].

===Annotated codes===
Practicing lawyers who can afford them almost always use an annotated version of the Code from a private company. The two leading annotated versions are the ''United States Code Annotated'', abbreviated as USCA, and the ''United States Code Service'', abbreviated as USCS.<ref name="Olson 1999 152">{{cite book|last=Olson|first=Kent C.|title=Legal Information: How to Find It, How to Use It|year=1999|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|location=Phoenix|isbn=0897749634|page=[https://archive.org/details/legalinformation00kent/page/152 152]|url=https://archive.org/details/legalinformation00kent/page/152}}</ref>  The USCA is published by [[West (publisher)|West]] (part of [[Thomson Reuters]]), and USCS is published by [[LexisNexis]] (part of [[Reed Elsevier]]), which purchased the publication from the [[Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co.]] in 1997 as a result of an antitrust settlement when the parent of Lawyers Co-operative Publishing acquired West.<ref>[http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f2200/2225.htm Final Judgment : U.S. et al. v. The Thomson Corporation and West Publishing Company] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512074046/http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f2200/2225.htm |date=May 12, 2009 }}. Usdoj.gov. Retrieved on 2013-07-19.</ref>  These annotated versions contain notes following each section of the law, which organize and summarize court decisions, law review articles, and other authorities that pertain to the code section, and may also include uncodified provisions that are part of the Public Laws.<ref name="Olson 1999 152" /> The publishers of these versions frequently issue supplements (in hard copy format as [[pocket part]]s) that contain newly enacted laws, which may not yet have appeared in an official published version of the Code, as well as updated secondary materials such as new court decisions on the subject.<ref name="Olson 1999 152" /> When an attorney is viewing an annotated code on an online service, such as [[Westlaw]] or LexisNexis, all the citations in the annotations are [[hyperlink]]ed to the referenced court opinions and other documents.