How to Get a Copy of the Patriot Act

The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. The lengthy Patriot Act, as it is commonly called, was passed as public law 107-56 in October, 2001, as a response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• United States Code volumes
• Photocopier
• Change to pay for copies
• Printer

1. Visit a library that has the United States Code as part of its reference collection. All law libraries, as well as many university and college libraries, will routinely get updates to these volumes. Call your public library to find out if they have a copy of the US Code.
2. Find the volume of the US Code that contains the public laws section, which is sometimes abbreviated as "P.L." or "pub. l." The US Code is a record of all of the permanent laws that have been passed in the United States. The Patriot Act is the "popular name" of public law 107-56.
3. Get a photocopy made of the Patriot Act, as the US Code is reference material and cannot be checked out of the library. In most libraries, you will need to pay for the self-serve photocopiers. Larger law libraries may have a copy service of which you can take advantage. Be prepared with coins in case you need to pay for each page, one at a time.
4. Download your own copy of the Patriot Act from the Government Printing Office (GPO) website (see Resources below). Since the Patriot Act is a federal law, it is published by the GPO and available for public consumption. Be sure you have Adobe Acrobat or a similar program that reads PDF files before downloading the law from the GPO's website.
5. Visit the Library of Congress's (LOC) online catalog, THOMAS. THOMAS is a catalog of all of the materials published in the United States. The entry for the Patriot Act contains not only the full text of the Act, but a more concise summary, a list of cosponsors and related bills (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• If you are using law books to get your copy of the Patriot Act and are having a hard time deciphering the language of the citations, ask a reference librarian for help. She will be able to point you in the right direction and show you how to read legal citations.
• The entire text of the Patriot Act is quite long. Before you copy or print out the entire law, browse through the pages. You may be able to save paper, ink and photocopying fees by reproducing only certain sections that you need.