Skip to content

law_code_sections

Law classifications by Congress

One row per line of an OLRC per-Congress classification table: a U.S. Code place one public law section touched, with the Statutes at Large page and the publisher's action word. All columns are stored as VARCHAR.

Coverage. Sampled. Every row of each public-law-order table the OLRC classification index links for a scoped Congress, read whole every run and replacing that session's rows. The index links the current Congress's session tables only. (measured 2026-09-19)

Data quality. A row is its position on the page (seq), because one line can repeat; a page read this run replaces every prior row for its Congress and session, so a line the publisher removed does not linger under a position it no longer holds. A session not read keeps its rows, and observed_at says when they were read. On 2026-10-02 and -03 OLRC answered its classification pages with a maintenance page and status 200, which the reader refuses rather than reading as an empty table. A refused page, or a 401/403, is journaled as classification-refused with its URL, status and time, and the nightly scripts/check_source_refusals.py fails while the current laws generation holds one; a 401/403 that leaves no session table read also fails the laws run after it publishes. A transport failure is only retried on the next run. Only the public-law order is read: the code-order twin holds the same lines under positions that would collide with these. A Congress the index does not link — every Congress but the current one — gets no rows here; table3_records is the historical view. action is the page's column 3 verbatim, NULL where the page left it blank, which its legend reads as amended. usc_section_key is usc_section folded for joins (trimmed, lower-cased, every dash spelling an ASCII hyphen), because case carries no identity in the Code and a join on the printed letter misses the upper-case spellings (decision 30, docs/research/fork-delivery-decisions-2026-09-22.md). Every laws run derives usc_section_key and usc_place again on every row from its stored usc_section and action, so a session not read keeps current ones; a row meets its table3_records record on law_number (its act_key), title, key and place. A law can be classified in the session table after the one its number suggests (119-70 is in the session-2 table, whose caption names it); filter by law_id, not by session, and stated_laws carries each table's caption. All columns are stored as VARCHAR.

  • Parquet file: law_code_sections.parquet
  • MCP query_sql support: Configured; requires an available artifact.
  • Publication status: Not established by this schema page or its measurement date.
  • Row count: Not stated here; the MCP describe_table reply gives the live count under publication.
Column Type Description
congress VARCHAR The Congress the table page states in its caption.
session VARCHAR The session (1 or 2) the table page states in its caption.
seq VARCHAR Zero-based position of this line in the page; part of the identity because one line can repeat.
law_id VARCHAR Natural key of the law, as laws keys it.
law_number VARCHAR The public law number as the table prints it, Congress prefix included.
law_type VARCHAR Always public: the page is the publisher's table for public laws.
number VARCHAR The law's number within its Congress.
usc_title VARCHAR The U.S. Code title as printed; a trailing A means the title's appendix, per the page's legend.
usc_section VARCHAR The U.S. Code section as printed.
action VARCHAR Column 3 verbatim; NULL where the page left it blank. The page's own legend (Explanation of Table, column 3, as the retained tbl119pl_2nd.htm prints it): nt means note; nt [tbl] means note [table]; prec means preceding; fr means a transfer from another section; to means a transfer to another section; new means a new section or new note; gen amd means the section or note is generally amended; omitted means the section is omitted; repealed means the section or note is repealed; nt ed chg and ed chg refer to the Editorial Classification Change Table; no entry or nt by itself means the section or note is amended. Tokens combine (nt new: a new note). A transfer prints as tr fr <title>/<section> (from that section) or tr to <title>/<section> (to it), the legend's fr and to. The leading nt or prec is the row's place, which usc_place states.
act_section VARCHAR The law's own section that did it, as printed; a quoted item after it names a new section.
statutes_at_large_volume VARCHAR The volume the page's column header names.
statutes_at_large_page VARCHAR The page as printed: one page, or a span such as two pages joined by a comma or a dash.
link_volume VARCHAR The volume in the row's statviewer link, where the row carries one.
link_page VARCHAR The page in the row's statviewer link, where the row carries one.
table_order VARCHAR Which of the publisher's two orders the page is: public-law or code; both hold the same lines.
stated_laws VARCHAR The law range the page's caption states it covers, verbatim.
prepared_date VARCHAR The date the page states it was prepared.
observed_at VARCHAR When the page was captured; the merge prefers the larger value.
usc_section_key VARCHAR The one U.S. Code section the row names, as a join key: the section number without Table III's printed note words (nt, nts, prec.; usc_place states them), lower-cased, with every dash spelling an ASCII hyphen, as RefSpec's section oracle keys it. Both OLRC tables key it the same way, so they meet on usc_title, usc_section_key and usc_place; without usc_place a note line meets the section's own line. Fold another source the same way (schemas.tables.usc_section_key): document_citations' usc_section rule 001 keeps the printed case and dashes. NULL where usc_section is NULL or names no single section (a list, a range or a chapter, which Table III prints for some older acts), and on rows published before the column existed.
usc_place VARCHAR Where on that section the row lands: section (the section itself), note (a note under it; OLRC's nt or nts), preceding (the place just before it, such as a chapter or subchapter heading a law adds there; prec) or note_preceding (a note at that place). Read from the section as Table III prints it (1101 nt, prec. 1071, nt. prec. 791) and from the head of law_code_sections.action (nt new, prec, nt prec new), by schemas.law_tables.usc_section_place. NULL where usc_section_key is NULL, and on rows published before the column existed.