Federal Legislative History

When a statute is passed by Congress, it is:

• First published as an individual public law (e.g. Pub. L. 93-406)
• Published by date in the official Statutes at Large (Stat.) and (since 1941) in Westlaw's unofficial United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN). Statutes organized by date are known as "session laws".
• Organized by topic in the official United States Code (U.S.C.), Westlaw's unofficial United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.), and Lexis' unofficial United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.). Current laws organized by topic are known as "codes".

Very rarely, you may also encounter private laws (Priv. L. 115-1), passed for the benefit of a specific individual. Typically, these award honors or exempt an especially sympathetic or well-connected individual from normal immigration laws. Private laws are published in the Statutes at Large but not included in the United States Code.​

Under certain circumstances, Bluebook rules 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 tell you to cite to the Statutes at Large, while also including the public or private law number, generally indicated in the margin of the Statutes at Large version. However, it can take almost a decade for a statute to be published in the Statutes at Large so sometimes you will need to cite instead to the unofficial USCCAN or to the individual public laws or private laws.

If you are not a current UCLA student, faculty, or staff member, and cannot come to the UCLA campus to access HeinOnline from the UCLA wireless or computers, you can access PDFs of selected years of the Statutes at Large and individual public and private laws for free online:

Both Lexis and Westlaw provide access to the Statutes at Large, public laws, and private laws. They are generally more difficult to browse and search than HeinOnline or the free websites but are a good option if you are not a current UCLA student, faculty, or staff member, need content that is not posted on the free websites, and have access to Lexis or Westlaw. Additionally, because USCCAN is published by Westlaw, it is only available on Westlaw and in print.