U.S. Code — Read Me First
The codified federal statutes, organized by subject into 54 Titles. Source: Cornell Legal Information Institute (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text).
Filename convention
One markdown note per USC section. Filename equals the citation you’d type:
10 USC 4022.md— Title 10, Section 4022 (OTA for prototypes)31 USC 1341.md— Title 31, Section 1341 (Anti-Deficiency Act)
Typing [[10 USC 4022]] in any memo resolves to the note.
Titles tracked in v1 (defense-advisory priority)
Not every Title is populated. The 12 below cover ~95% of what appears in defense / federal contracting practice.
| Title | Subject | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 5 USC | Government Organization & Employees | Civil service, APA (rulemaking procedure), FOIA origin |
| 6 USC | Domestic Security | DHS, SAFETY Act (anti-terrorism liability shield) |
| 10 USC | Armed Forces | DoD authority. OTA (4022), Berry (4862), specialty metals (4863), IP rights (3771–3775) |
| 15 USC | Commerce & Trade | Small Business Act (§644 = set-aside authority), SBIR/STTR (§638) |
| 18 USC | Crimes | Procurement fraud, kickbacks (§201, §203, §208), False Statements (§1001), False Claims criminal piece |
| 22 USC | Foreign Relations | Arms Export Control Act (§2778 = ITAR basis) |
| 28 USC | Judiciary | COFC jurisdiction (§1491 — Tucker Act), claims against the U.S. |
| 31 USC | Money & Finance | Anti-Deficiency (§1341), Bona Fide Needs (§1502), CICA protest authority (§3551), False Claims civil (§3729) |
| 40 USC | Public Buildings, Property, Works | Davis-Bacon (§3141), Brooks Act (§1101) |
| 41 USC | Public Contracts | The general civilian-procurement statutes. FASA, SARA, CICA. |
| 44 USC | Public Printing & Documents | Federal Records Act, PRA, E-Government Act |
| 50 USC | War & National Defense | CFIUS (§4565), DPA (§4501), Export Control Reform Act (§4801) |
Titles NOT tracked in v1
- Tax (26 USC)
- Patents (35 USC, though IP statutes are in 17 USC + 35 USC + 15 USC)
- Food/Drug (21 USC)
- Social programs, labor standards not specific to contractors
Easy to add later — each is just another entry in the ingester config.
How a citation decomposes
10 USC 4022(a)(2) is:
| Piece | Meaning |
|---|---|
10 | Title — Armed Forces |
USC | U.S. Code |
4022 | Section — Authority of the Secretary of Defense to carry out certain prototype projects |
(a) | Subsection |
(2) | Paragraph |
Sections use the same (a)(1)(A)(i)(I) hierarchy FAR does (alpha →
digit → upper-alpha → lower-roman → upper-roman). When a USC note is
generated, each paragraph gets an Obsidian block ID so
![[10 USC 4022#^a-2|^a-2]] transcludes the specific paragraph into a memo.
Positive Law vs Non-Positive Law
A quirk worth knowing: most but not all USC Titles have been enacted into “positive law” by Congress. Positive-law titles (e.g., Title 10, Title 41 since 2011) ARE the law — you cite the Title, not the underlying public law. Non-positive-law titles (e.g., Title 15) are editorial compilations; the underlying public laws remain the legal authority. In practice you still cite by USC section for both, and Cornell annotates the distinction at the Title’s landing page.
Amendments and pending changes
USC sections amend when Congress passes a public law that modifies them. Cornell refreshes within days of enactment. When the sync picks up an amendment, you’ll see a git diff in the vault:
far-sync blame "10 USC 4022"shows every change to that section over time.
Status
Folder scaffolding. The Cornell LII ingester is the next build.