PrimarySources

PRIMARY SOURCES OF LAW

Many in the Freedom Movement who are interested in legal arguments too often rely on self-proclaimed “gurus” because of the lack of access to fundamental legal sources. At times, arguments asserted by these gurus (if the argument is not just completely fabricated) cite particular legislative acts for amazing propositions that are readily believed by those who don’t know differently. For example, the “redemptionists” claimed that the 1935 Social Security Act set aside approximately 600,000 bux “on the private side” for everyone having a social security account. But a reading of the act itself reveals this contention to be just another (of the great many) lies of the gurus, who intentionally (like their employer) deceive the masses. One guru presently hitting the weekend seminar circuit alleges that the International Sovereign Immunities Act placed all government offices under the UN. Proof that this is just another big lie promoted by deceptive gurus is proven by simply reading the act itself.

Of course, the United States Constitution is a primary source of legal authority. Another primary source of legal authority is the U.S. Statutes at Large. After ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Congress started meeting in Philadelphia and enacting federal laws. Acts adopted by Congress are presented to the President for signing, and thereafter delivered to the State Department for archival purposes. For the first 50 years of this country’s existence, these federal laws were published and made available to the public by a publishing firm named Bioren and Duane as well as Justice Story. In the early 1840s, Justice Story spearheaded a project to republished these Congressional acts in an official publication, and Congress agreed in 1845. By 1848, another law publishing company, Little and Brown from Boston, published the first official U.S. Statutes at Large, and today this publication constitutes the official source for acts of Congress. Starting in 1875 and continuing ever since, actual printing of the U.S. Statutes at Large has been performed by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Today on the Net, a portion of these U.S. Statutes at Large can be read on an official government website. But the entire U.S. Statutes at Large appear nowhere on the Net, until recently. Years ago, a patriot associated with Truth Attack converted the entire U.S. Statutes at Large into PDF files, converted the images to text, and saved the text conversions beneath the PDF images, making each volume searchable. These files were provided to Jon Roland, who posted them on his website. Now, Truth Attack provides handy links to all these volumes of the U.S. Statutes at Large.

The U.S. Statutes at Large are posted on Jon Roland's Constitution Society website, and are linked below:

Vol. 1, U.S. Statutes at Large (1789-99) (52MB)

Vol. 2, U.S. Statutes at Large (1799-1813) (67MB)

Vol. 3, U.S. Statutes at Large (1813-23) (65MB)

Vol. 4, U.S. Statutes at Large (1824-35) (68MB)

Vol. 5, U.S. Statutes at Large (1836-45) (68MB)

Vol. 9, U.S. Statutes at Large (1845-51) (83MB)

Vol. 10, U.S. Statutes at Large (1851-55) (56MB)

Vol. 11, U.S. Statutes at Large (1855-59) (50MB)

Vol. 12, U.S. Statutes at Large (1859-63) (70MB)

Vol. 13, U.S. Statutes at Large (1863-65) (53MB)

Finding a specific act of Congress is easy. For example, a student might run across a reference to the Legal Tender Act of 1862, 12 Stat. 345. To find this act with its citation,one would simply pull Volume 12 of the U.S. Statutes at Large, and turn to page 345. The first number, in this example, 12, is the volume number and the second number, 345, is the page number in that volume.

In 1926 pursuant to a Congressional act, the United States Code was created. Please see this article, Titles of the U.S. Code, for an explanation of how this Code was created. The first U.S.Code was published in a single volume, and it may be downloaded (in a searchable format) here:

1926USCode

The older federal income tax acts in a searchable PDF format are linked here:

Revenue Act of 1918

Revenue Act of 1921

Revenue Act of 1924

Revenue Act of 1926

Revenue Act of 1928

Revenue Act of 1932

Revenue Act of 1934

Revenue Act of 1936

Revenue Act of 1938

1939 Internal Revenue Code

1954 Internal Revenue Code

1986 Internal Revenue Code (Jan. 2002 version)

Have you ever wondered why doesn't somebody combined all the relevant volumes of the federal income tax regulations into one huge PDF file and make it available to the public? Wonder no longer, because it is here (more than 10,000 pages in this single file):

26 CFR - 2003 - Parts 1, 20, 25, 31

Do you have trouble finding good state constitutions and codes posted on the Net? Here they are:

State Codes: