The collection can be sorted by the popular name of the law, by the date of its enactment, or by descriptive category of naming convention. The categories are our attempt to bring some degree of order to the chaos.
Database of Federal Statute Names
Database of Federal Statute Popular Names
| Title | Type | Popular Name | Short Title | Named For? | Classification | PL | Statute At Large |
Date(s) Enacted |
Interesting Part Statutized? | Leads to other named Legislation | Link/Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilson Act (aka Original Packages Act) | Sponsor | Wilson Act (aka Original Packages Act) | NO short title | Sen. James Wilson (R-IA) | 27 USC 121 (note) | ch 728, 26 Stat 313 | N |
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000594 |
name not statutized; but both names are listed under short title note; see also Andrew Alexander Bruce, The Wilson Act and the Constitution, Green Bag, Vol. 21, Issue 5 (May 1909) and 21 Cong. Rec. 4954 (1890). | |||
| United States Arbitration Act | Description | United States Arbitration Act | "United States Arbitration Act" | Ch. 213, 43 Stat 883 | ||||||||
| Cooley Tobacco Act (see Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938) | Sponsor | Cooley Tobacco Act (see Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938) | "Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938" | Rep. Harold Dunbar Cooley (D-NC) | 7 USC 1281 | ch 30, 52 Stat 31 | N |
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000736 |
"Cooley Tobacco Act" not statutized | |||
| Lever Act (Food and Fuel Control) | Sponsor | Lever Act (Food and Fuel Control) | NO short title | Rep. Asbury Francis Lever, (D-S.C.) | ch. 53, 40 Stat 276 | X |
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000259 |
nothing in statute | ||||
| Export Apple Act | Description | Export Apple Act | NO short title | 7 USC 581 | ch 59, 48 Stat 123 | Y | amended to include short title as "Export Apple Act" by 113 Stat 1321 (1999); cross-listed as "Export Apple and Pear Act", promiting the export of apples and pears | |||||
| Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1936 | Description | Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1936 | "Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1936" | C. 3, 49 Stat 6 | ||||||||
| Spooner Act (Panama Canal) | Sponsor | Spooner Act (Panama Canal) | NO short title | Sen. John Spooner (R-WI), author | ch 1302, 32 Stat 481 | X |
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000741; also 12.15.1905 NYT article (on file); also http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/560906/John-Spooner?anchor=ref... |
creating Panama Canal | ||||
| Mrs. Murphy (Civil Rights Act) Exemption | Undefined | Mrs. Murphy (Civil Rights Act) Exemption | NO short title | Mrs. Murphy was not a real person, but a hypothetical small boarding house owner, who would be exempted from the requirements of the Civil Rights Act. The hypothetical character was created by Republican Senator George Aiken of Vermont and the name caught on. | 42 USC 3603(b)(2) | 90-284, title VIII, section 803(b)(2) | 82 Stat 82 | N |
James D. Walsh, Reaching Mrs. Murphy: A Call for Repeal of the Mrs. Murphy Exemption to the Fair Housing Act, 34 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 605 (1999) at n. 3. |
name not statutized | ||
| Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust Act of 1998 | Honor | Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust Act of 1998 | "Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust Act of 1998" | Rep. Bill Emerson (MO) died in 1996. | 17 USC 1691 | 105-385 (Title II, subtitle B) | 112 Stat 3465 | Y |
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=E000174 |
short title; Named for Emerson in Short Title and also as name of Subtitle B | ||
| Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 | Abbreviation | Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 | "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008" or the "FISA Amendments Act of 2008" | 50 USC 1801 | 110-261 | 122 Stat 2436 | N | short title at the beginning of statute; what's interesting here is that "FISA" is not part of the short title of the original bill, but it has clearly come to be known by the acronym |