Current federal code section
Original research draft · October 2026
Working pattern
[Title] U.S.C. § [section] ([identified edition or version]).
Capture from the source
Title; section; subdivisions; edition; amendments; applicability date
Check before you use it
Inspect the applicable text and record why that version governs the question.
Common error: Today's compilation is not necessarily the law governing earlier conduct.
Completed example
Official 2024 edition text and metadata directly inspected October 8, 2026. This example deliberately marks current-through-2026 verification incomplete and does not decide whether a proposed use is fair use.
17 U.S.C. § 107 (2024).
Read the supplied source facts
GovInfo's official United States Code, 2024 Edition, supplies title 17, section 107, headed Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use. The exercise asks the researcher to prepare a version-specific citation to that verified edition while beginning a present-day research task. The page presents the statutory text separately from historical and revision notes. The researcher has not completed a check for enactments after the edition's coverage. A preliminary-code search result appeared during research, but opening the current House site returned a maintenance page, so it does not establish a freshly verified current text.
Why this works
This is a complete citation to the edition actually inspected. The date identifies that edition, not the year of retrieval or an assertion that every current-law check is complete. The source card should therefore record both the 2024 version and the outstanding currency task. When the assignment concerns current law, verify subsequent amendments, effective dates, and applicable text before presenting the research as current. The formatting can be finished while the legal research remains incomplete. Also distinguish the enacted section from explanatory material displayed beneath it; a quotation from a historical note is not automatically a quotation from section 107 itself.
When the facts change
If the assignment concerns a transaction on an earlier date, retrieve the relevant historical text and trace changes instead of replacing 2024 with the transaction year by assumption. If an inspected online compilation later supplies a newer explicit coverage date, record that coverage and apply the receiving document's version convention. Do not print a bare 2026 parenthetical merely because the source was visited in 2026.
Official source material
Apply the receiving court or publication’s requirements. These working forms do not establish citation permission, precedential weight, or support for a legal proposition.