This document gives a broad outline of where laws come from in the United States beyond just the parts of the lawmaking process you can see here on GovTrack.us, including the Constitution, statutes, regulations, case law, and state and local law.
Source of Law: The Constitution of the United States This Law is Called: Constitutional law. What is it? The Constitution is the founding document of the country and is the highest legal authority. Ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789, it sets the fundamental structure and limitations of the government of the Untited States of America. The Constitution created the federal (or “national”) government which has three parts: the Congress (the legislative branch), the President & federal agencies (the executive branch), and the federal courts (the judicial branch). The Constitution gave different but overlapping powers to the branches so that no branch has the highest authority but all branches are involved in the creation of law. What does it mean today? The Constitution was necessarily vague when it was written. The founders of the nation could not anticipate all possible problems that would face the nation. As a result, more than 200 years of court cases have given more precise meaning to the original text. This Annotated Constitution explains what the original text of the Constitution is now understood to mean. How is Constitutional law created? The Constitution can still be amended by a process involving the Congress and the states, though this is rare. When an amendment is proposed by the Congress, you can see it here on GovTrack as a joint resolution. Constitutional law is also created as new court cases refine the meaning of the original document (see case law below).
This website GovTrack.us focuses on only information about the Congress in the federal government of the United States. But we have included other information on this page so that you can understand the role of the Congress as a part of the entire government’s job of creating law.
Source of Law: The President of the United States. This Law is Called: Executive orders and other presidential directives. What is it?
The President of the United States has no explicit law-making power in the Constitution, but there are two implicit sources of authority that the President uses to create law:
(1) The first is the President’s inherent powers in the Constitution, primarily the President’s role as the commander-in-chief of the military and the power to make foreign policy (and some others, such as to issue pardons). These powers can be constrained by Congress and challenged in the courts, but the President has wide latitude in these areas.
(2) The second source of authority derives from the President’s power to fire some of the highest level of staff in the executive branch, including the President’s Cabinet members. Not all officials can be fired by the President, but for those who the President can fire, the President can order them to take any action consistent with existing law. Such orders usually direct agencies to take actions that Congress left up to the agency to decide. In these cases, the President can direct the agency to decide one way or the other.
Source of Law: The federal courts, including the Supreme Court. This Law is Called: Case law. What is it? The judicial branch of the federal government, created by the Constitution, is the federal court system. The courts resolve disagreements in the law by interpreting statutes, regulations, the Constitution, and common law. But in resolving disagreements, they also create new law. The opinions issued by the courts form the part of U.S. law called case law under the principle of precedent, which means that the logic of earlier court opinions must be applied to new cases brought before the same court. How is case law created?
There are three levels of federal courts. Most cases are brought first before “district” courts, which can hold trials. District courts each generally have authority over small geographic jurisdictions in the country. When the parties still disagree with a district court opinion, judgments by district courts are appealed to “circuit” courts. Like district courts, circuit courts generally have jurisdiction over a geographic part of the country. Circuit court judgments are appealed to the Supreme Court, especially when circuit courts in different parts of the country have come to different decisions on similar issues. Case law is created whenever these courts issue opinions.
There are, additionally, laws that are enforced by the courts which are neither statutes nor regulations. Common law are precedents set by the courts before the country was founded, based on earlier legal traditions, and which are still enforced by courts.
Source of Law: The 50 states and their local governments, as well as the governments of the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.’s other territories. This Law is Called: State and local law. What is it?
The Constitution created a union of states, with a federal government at the center. Under a principle called divided sovereignty, the federal government is responsible for some areas of law (e.g., money, war) while the state governments are responsible for other areas (e.g., health, police). There are currently 50 states in the United States of America. Each state has a government similar to the federal government but on a smaller scale, with legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Additionally, there are six non-state territories that produce their own law. The District of Columbia, the nation’s capital district, has a local government supervised by the Congress. Puerto Rico and the U.S.’s four other island territories — American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — have their own governments but have no ultimate sovereignty as the states do.
GovTrack helps everyone learn about and track the activities of the United States Congress. Launched more than 20 years ago, we’re one of the oldest government transparency and accountability websites on the Internet.
This is a project of Civic Impulse, LLC. GovTrack.us is not a government website.
