Law of the United States
[5] The United States Code is the official compilation and codification of general and permanent federal statutory law.[17] If Congress enacts a statute that conflicts with the Constitution, state or federal courts may rule that law to be unconstitutional and declare it invalid.[22] Certain practices traditionally allowed under English common law were expressly outlawed by the Constitution, such as bills of attainder[23] and general search warrants.[29] Second, a small number of important British statutes in effect at the time of the Revolution have been independently reenacted by U.S. states.[34] By 1879 one of the delegates to the California constitutional convention was already complaining: "Now, when we require them to state the reasons for a decision, we do not mean they shall write a hundred pages of detail."[35][36] Today, in the words of Stanford law professor Lawrence M. Friedman: "American cases rarely cite foreign materials.[38] Federal law originates with the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to enact statutes for certain limited purposes like regulating interstate commerce.Since the start of the 20th century, broad interpretations of the Commerce and Spending Clauses of the Constitution have enabled federal law to expand into areas like aviation, telecommunications, railroads, pharmaceuticals, antitrust, and trademarks.Under the principle of Chevron deference, regulations normally carry the force of law as long as they are based on a reasonable interpretation of the relevant statutes.[46] The difficult question is whether federal judicial power extends to formulating binding precedent through strict adherence to the rule of stare decisis.[45] As federal judge Alex Kozinski has pointed out, binding precedent as we know it today simply did not exist at the time the Constitution was framed.[45] In turn, according to Kozinski's analysis, the contemporary rule of binding precedent became possible in the U.S. in the nineteenth century only after the creation of a clear court hierarchy (under the Judiciary Acts), and the beginning of regular verbatim publication of U.S. appellate decisions by West Publishing.[45] The rule of binding precedent is generally justified today as a matter of public policy, first, as a matter of fundamental fairness, and second, because in the absence of case law, it would be completely unworkable for every minor issue in every legal case to be briefed, argued, and decided from first principles (such as relevant statutes, constitutional provisions, and underlying public policies), which in turn would create hopeless inefficiency, instability, and unpredictability, and thereby undermine the rule of law.[47][48] The contemporary form of the rule is descended from Justice Louis Brandeis's "landmark dissent in 1932's Burnet v. Coronado Oil & Gas Co.", which "catalogued the Court's actual overruling practices in such a powerful manner that his attendant stare decisis analysis immediately assumed canonical authority.[70] States have delegated lawmaking powers to thousands of agencies, townships, counties, cities, and special districts.[71] It is common for residents of major U.S. metropolitan areas to live under six or more layers of special districts as well as a town or city, and a county or township (in addition to the federal and state governments).[72] Thus, at any given time, the average American citizen is subject to the rules and regulations of several dozen different agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, depending upon one's current location and behavior.Criminal law involves the prosecution by the state of wrongful acts which are considered to be so serious that they are a breach of the sovereign's peace (and cannot be deterred or remedied by mere lawsuits between private parties).To simplify the prosecution of traffic violations and other relatively minor crimes, some states have added a third level, infractions.[78] In turn, the exclusionary rule spawned a family of judge-made remedies for the abuse of law enforcement powers, of which the most famous is the Miranda warning.The law of civil procedure governs process in all judicial proceedings involving lawsuits between private parties.[80] Generally, contract law in transactions involving the sale of goods has become highly standardized nationwide as a result of the widespread adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code.This broad family of civil wrongs involves interference "with person, property, reputation, or commercial or social advantage.State tort-related statutes focus on discrete issues such as authorizing wrongful death claims (which did not exist at common law).For example, a few jurisdictions allow actions for negligent infliction of emotional distress even in the absence of physical injury to the plaintiff, but most do not.[83] The American Law Institute subsequently adopted a slightly different version of the Greenman rule in Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, which was published in 1964 and was very influential throughout the United States.[101][102] Certain kinds of contract, tort, and property civil actions involving state law issues can be heard in federal courts under diversity jurisdiction, but federal courts decline to hear family cases under the "domestic relations exception" to diversity jurisdiction.
Constitution of the United StatesUnited States CongressSupreme Court of the United StatesUnited StatescodifiedConstitutionfederal governmentcivil libertiesActs of CongresstreatiesSenateexecutive branchcase lawfederal judiciaryUnited States CodecodificationU.S. statesAmerican federalismIndian reservationsplenarysovereignscontractpropertyprobatecriminalfamily lawstate lawlegal system of Louisianacommon lawEnglish lawBritish AmericaAmerican Revolutionary Warcivil lawparking lotsconstitutional lawstatutory lawadministrative regulationsunconstitutionalstare decisisCommonwealthbills of attainderreception statutescommon carriersStatute of FraudsStatute of 13 ElizabethCalifornia constitutional conventionLawrence M. FriedmanBlackstonestatutesinterstate commerceregulationsFederal RegisterCode of Federal RegulationsChevron doctrineSkidmore deferencemilitaryforeign relationstariffsintellectual propertypatentscopyrightsCommerceSpendingaviationtelecommunicationsrailroadspharmaceuticalsantitrusttrademarksemployment lawinsuranceMcCarran–Ferguson ActUnited States Statutes at LargeList of United States federal legislationOffice of the Federal RegisterNational Archives and Records Administrationslip lawsession lawsOffice of the Law Revision CounselHouse of Representativesadministrative lawrulemakingfederal agenciesgridlockedChevronAdministrative Procedure ActSkidmoreUnited States ReportsNational Reporter SystemU.S. Supreme Courtlegal precedentFounding Fathers of the United StatesArticle Three of the United States Constitutionpersuasive precedentcases or controversiesbinding precedentAlex Kozinskinatural lawJudiciary ActsWest Publishingpublic policyrule of lawLouis Brandeismajority opinionJustice Breyersubstantive due processOriginalistsAntonin ScaliaErie Railroad Co. v. Tompkinsdiversity jurisdictioncourts of appealsdistrict courtsState law (United States)Thomson WestCalifornia Penal CodeCaliforniastate constitutionsstate governmentsstate courtsstate supreme courtscertiorariNational Center for State CourtsLaw of AlabamaLaw of ArizonaLaw of ArkansasLaw of California