US Statutes API: USC, CFR & State Codes
The US Code, the CFR, and every state and territory code (5.4M+ sections) in one self-serve API: REST, MCP or SQL. Every section links to its official source.
The hard way
Build the pipeline yourself
- Government sites for all 56 jurisdictions, each in its own format, with broken PDF tables and footnotes
- Section hierarchy, amendments, and metadata
- A search index you build and keep in sync
- Re-scrape it all, forever, as the law changes
The API
Or make one call
POST /api/v1/us/statutes/search
- Indexed and normalized to one schema
- Cited, with a link to the official source
- Relevance-ranked, filter by state or corpus
- Refreshed on a per-source schedule
One API key. Live today.
We open-sourced the hard part: the scrapers
Open US Law publishes every state statutory code plus the US Code, the CFR, regulations, constitutions, and court rules as JSONL from official government sources, along with the scrapers that build it. Scripts are Apache-2.0; the compiled data is CC BY-NC 4.0, free for non-commercial use. Clone it to self-host, or use the hosted API to skip the pipeline.
- Sections of US primary law
- 5.4M+Sections of US primary law
- US jurisdictions: 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa, plus federal
- 56US jurisdictions: 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa, plus federal
- Indexed retrieval passages
- 20M+Indexed retrieval passages
The 11 endpoints you will use most, of 30.
Section lookup
/api/v1/us/statutes/resolveResolve a Bluebook citation straight to its section
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}Get a section, citation, title, and hierarchy metadata
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/bodyGet the full text of a section, HTML and plain text
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/relatedGet the sections immediately before and after this one
/api/v1/us/statutes/sectionsBatch metadata for up to 50 sections in one call
Discover the corpus
Go deeper on a section
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/changesGet this section's change history
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/cited-byFind the sections that cite this one
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/definitionsGet the defined terms that govern this section
/api/v1/us/statutes/section/{act_id}/cross-stateCompare this provision against other states
One request, cited results.
curl -X POST https://api.vaquill.ai/api/v1/us/statutes/search \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VAQUILL_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"query": "qualified immunity", "corpusType": "USC", "limit": 5}'{
"results": [
{
"actId": "USC_T6_C4_S1104",
"citation": "6 U.S.C. § 1104 (2026)",
"title": "Immunity for reports of suspected terrorist activity",
"corpusType": "USC",
"state": "federal",
"year": 2026,
"relevanceScore": 0.73,
"excerpt": "Any person who, in good faith...",
"displayPath": "Title 6 > Chapter 4 > § 1104",
"htmlUrl": "https://statutes-us.vaquill.ai/...htm",
"externalUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/..."
}
],
"count": 1,
"offset": 0,
"hasMore": false,
"creditsConsumed": 4
}Everything the API covers
One schema over every layer of US primary law: 5.4M+ sections across every US jurisdiction, each cited and linked to its official source.
US Code sections
53 titles, weekly
CFR sections
49 active titles, daily
Federal Register rules
final + proposed, 1994 to present
Statutes at Large sections
federal law as enacted, 1789 to date
Statute compilation sections
2,556 acts, currency stated per document
Agency adjudication decisions
7 federal bodies, no good-law verdict
CFR annual edition sections
31 published editions of the same regulations, not extra breadth
Federal Register notices
curated 2.7% slice: notices acting on a rulemaking
State statute sections
all 56 jurisdictions
State regulation rules
all 56 jurisdictions
State session laws (acts)
2025 sessions, 50 jurisdictions, as passed
Executive orders
+ proclamations & memos
Agency guidance documents
53 named sources across 26 agencies
State constitution sections
53 jurisdictions
State court rules
56 jurisdictions
Federal Rules of Procedure
FRCP, FRCrP, FRE, FRAP, FRBP + SCOTUS Rules
Federal local court rules
52 rule sets: appeals, national and district courts
State agency guidance (bulletins)
49 jurisdictions
US Constitution sections
articles + amendments
State Attorney General opinions
43 jurisdictions, persuasive not binding
US Sentencing Guidelines sections
including former versions
Federal: the US Code and CFR
The complete codified federal corpus, with in-force counts and historical (repealed, omitted, transferred) sections preserved for reproducible research.
| Corpus | Sections | In force | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Code (statutes) | 60,494 | 50,997 | 53 |
| CFR (regulations) | 222,355 | 222,137 | 49 |
| USC + CFR | 282,849 | 273,134 | 102 |
Bracketed entries are citation patterns, not placeholders: California, New York and Texas divide their statutes into subject-matter codes, so a citation names the subject (Cal. Penal Code, N.Y. Penal Law, Tex. Penal Code).
Plus the Federal Register (203,105 rules, final and proposed, 1994 to present), 3,815 executive orders, the US Constitution, the Federal Rules of Procedure, 98,390 agency guidance documents across 26 agencies, the US Sentencing Guidelines, and US tax treaties.
State: all 56 statute codes
Every state code in the same schema as federal. Scope a query to one jurisdiction with state: "tx", or resolve a citation like Tex. Penal Code § 19.02 straight to its section. Plus state regulations (1.56M+ rules, all 56 jurisdictions), state constitutions (53 jurisdictions), state court rules (56 jurisdictions), and state agency guidance / bulletins (49 jurisdictions).
- ALAlabamaAla. Code
- AKAlaskaAlaska Stat.
- ASAmerican SamoaAm. Samoa Code Ann.
- AZArizonaAriz. Rev. Stat.
- ARArkansasArk. Code
- CACaliforniaCal. [Code]
- COColoradoColo. Rev. Stat.
- CTConnecticutConn. Gen. Stat.
- DEDelawareDel. Code
- DCDistrict of ColumbiaD.C. Code
- FLFloridaFla. Stat.
- GAGeorgiaGa. Code
- GUGuamGuam Code Ann.
- HIHawaiiHaw. Rev. Stat.
- IDIdahoIdaho Code
- ILIllinoisIll. Comp. Stat.
- INIndianaInd. Code
- IAIowaIowa Code
- KSKansasKan. Stat.
- KYKentuckyKy. Rev. Stat.
- LALouisianaLa. Rev. Stat.
- MEMaineMe. Rev. Stat.
- MDMarylandMd. Code
- MAMassachusettsMass. Gen. Laws
- MIMichiganMich. Comp. Laws
- MNMinnesotaMinn. Stat.
- MSMississippiMiss. Code
- MOMissouriMo. Rev. Stat.
- MTMontanaMont. Code
- NENebraskaNeb. Rev. Stat.
- NVNevadaNev. Rev. Stat.
- NHNew HampshireN.H. Rev. Stat.
- NJNew JerseyN.J. Stat.
- NMNew MexicoN.M. Stat.
- NYNew YorkN.Y. [Cons. Laws]
- NCNorth CarolinaN.C. Gen. Stat.
- NDNorth DakotaN.D. Cent. Code
- MPNorthern Mariana IslandsN. Mar. I. Code
- OHOhioOhio Rev. Code
- OKOklahomaOkla. Stat.
- OROregonOr. Rev. Stat.
- PAPennsylvaniaPa. Cons. Stat.
- PRPuerto RicoP.R. Laws Ann.
- RIRhode IslandR.I. Gen. Laws
- SCSouth CarolinaS.C. Code
- SDSouth DakotaS.D. Codified Laws
- TNTennesseeTenn. Code
- TXTexasTex. [Code]
- UTUtahUtah Code
- VTVermontVt. Stat.
- VIUS Virgin IslandsV.I. Code Ann.
- VAVirginiaVa. Code
- WAWashingtonWash. Rev. Code
- WVWest VirginiaW. Va. Code
- WIWisconsinWis. Stat.
- WYWyomingWyo. Stat.
Security & Compliance
Legal data demands serious security. Here is how we protect your queries and your clients' data.
- Bearer token auth
- Keys prefixed vq_key_, rotate any time from the dashboard.
- HTTPS only
- Encrypted in transit; plain HTTP is rejected.
- No query logging
- We never store your searches, only usage for billing.
- Documented data locations
- Every processing region is recorded in our sub-processor register.
- IP whitelisting
- IP-based access restrictions on enterprise plans.
Working in legal aid or civil justice?
Common questions
US primary law other than case law: statutes, regulations, constitutions, court rules, executive orders, agency guidance, and agency adjudications. Federal plus all 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands and American Samoa, about 5.4M+ sections. State session laws, the acts as each legislature passed them, are served alongside: 20,604 acts from the 2025 sessions across 50 jurisdictions, with signing and effective dates. The coverage section above breaks it down corpus by corpus, and GET /api/v1/us/statutes/coverage returns the live numbers.
Stop building legal data pipelines.
The rest of the API surface
One corpus, several ways to reach it. Call the REST API, wire it into your agent over MCP, download the open dataset, or read the coverage in detail.
- API PlaygroundRun live requests from your dashboard and see the real response before you write a line of code.
- Law Change AlertsWebhook or email the moment a jurisdiction or corpus you watch changes, down to the section.
- MCP ServerStatute search + section lookup as native tools in Claude, Cursor, and VS Code.
- Open DatasetThe full corpus as Parquet on Hugging Face. Public-domain text, CC BY-NC 4.0 compilation.
- API DocsEndpoints, parameters, response schemas, and code samples.