Data Sources
Every page on Federal & State Law derives from public-domain U.S. legal materials. This page lists every upstream source we draw from, with its license terms, content type, and refresh cadence. We link out to the canonical official source on every statute, regulation, case, and form page rather than mirror or republish.
Public-domain by design
Federal statutes, federal regulations, federal court opinions, and the works of most state governments are not subject to copyright (see 17 U.S.C. § 105 for federal works, and individual state statutes for state-government works). Our editorial summaries are also released under public-domain dedication (CC0).
Upstream sources
Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII)
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal + State
- Refresh cadence
- Federal materials refreshed weekly; full annual review
- Content type
- U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, Federal Rules, Constitution, Supreme Court opinions, state statutes
- License / use
- Public domain (federal materials); Cornell LII commentary released under Creative Commons
- Notes
- Primary canonical reference for plain-language linking on statute, regulation, and case pages.
GovInfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office)
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Refresh cadence
- Daily for the Federal Register and Congressional Record; new Public Laws ingested within 48 hours of publication
- Content type
- Public Laws, U.S. Code editions, Federal Register, Congressional Record, presidential documents, CFR editions
- License / use
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Congress.gov
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Refresh cadence
- Daily during legislative sessions
- Content type
- Bills (text, status, sponsors, history), Committee reports, Member information
- License / use
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Federal Register
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Refresh cadence
- Daily
- Content type
- Proposed rules, final rules, notices, presidential documents
- License / use
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Refresh cadence
- Weekly editorial cross-check against eCFR amendments
- Content type
- Current and recent CFR text, amendment history
- License / use
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
- Notes
- Canonical source for CFR detail pages; we always link out to the eCFR section URL.
Free Law Project / CourtListener
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal + State
- Refresh cadence
- Daily for new opinions
- Content type
- Court opinions (Supreme Court, federal circuit and district, state appellate)
- License / use
- Public domain (U.S. court opinions are not copyrightable); database tooling under permissive open-source licenses
- Notes
- Source of canonical opinion text we link to on each /federal/cases/[caseSlug] page.
Uniform Law Commission
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Multi-state
- Refresh cadence
- Quarterly review for state-adoption changes
- Content type
- Uniform and model acts (UCC, UPC, UPMAA, UMOIPA, UAGPPJA, etc.) with state-adoption tracking
- License / use
- Released by ULC for free public reference
State legislature official websites
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- State
- Refresh cadence
- Quarterly per legislative session; bill-status updates more often during active sessions
- Content type
- State statutes, bills, session-law publication schedules
- License / use
- Public domain (state-government works are public-domain in most states; a small number of states assert copyright in their official compilations — we link rather than redistribute in those cases)
- Notes
- We maintain a per-state link to the official statute compilation root for every /states/[stateSlug] page.
State court administrative offices
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- State
- Refresh cadence
- Quarterly review; we link to the official court-issued form rather than redistribute
- Content type
- Court rules, court forms, opinions of state appellate courts, court directories
- License / use
- Public domain (state-government works); forms are usually issued by the court itself as canonical
- Notes
- Form pages always direct users to the canonical state-court form (see /forms/[stateSlug]/[formType]).
U.S. Supreme Court — Justia / Cornell mirror
Visit source- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Refresh cadence
- Within 24 hours of opinion release
- Content type
- Supreme Court opinions, orders, oral argument transcripts
- License / use
- Public domain
How we use these sources
- Primary over secondary. We always cite the canonical official source for statutes, regulations, and case opinions, even when we present an editorial summary alongside.
- Link rather than mirror. Where the official source is a single canonical URL (eCFR, Cornell LII section, official court opinion), we link to that URL rather than redistribute the text in full.
- State works with caution. A small number of states assert copyright in their official compilations of state law. In those cases we summarize and link rather than redistribute.
- Editorial summaries are clearly labeled. Where we paraphrase or summarize, we mark it as editorial and provide an inline link to the official text.
Related
- Citation methodology — how we cite, and how to cite us
- Update methodology — review cadence per page type
- Corrections policy — how to report an error
- Editorial policy — how content gets written and reviewed
- Legal disclaimer