| Statute's Current Status Determining the current status of a
statute on Westlaw can be done by using KeyCite, West's
citation research service. To begin your research, you
select the KeyCite tab and type in your USCA citation. A
yellow or red KeyCite status flag indicates that there is
either pending legislation (yellow flag) or the statute
has been affected (red flag) by case law or legislative
action (i.e. amended, repealed or ruled unconstitutional).
You can also obtain the KeyCite
"History" for the statute and the "Citing
References" which provides a list of primary and
secondary materials that cite the statute, including
cases. Finally, if you want to monitor future changes to
the statute, you can click "Monitor With KeyCite
Alert" which takes you through steps to set up an
automatic monitoring service of the statute.
Note: If you do not have the code
citation, but have the popular name, you can go to the
USCA Popular Name Table (USCA-POP). When you click on the
popular name, it will show you where the sections of the
Public Law have been codified in the United States Code.
Using the code citation, you can then use the KeyCite
service.
Another way to get to the code
citation, if you have the Public Law number or the
Statutes at Large citation, is to use the United States
Annotated Code Tables (USCA-TABLES). After you type in
the Public Law number or the Statutes at Large citation
and click the search tab, a results page will be returned.
Click the appropriate document and a table with the
Public Law number, the Statutes at Large citation and the
USCA citation will be listed. Once you obtain the code
citation, you can use the KeyCite service.
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