What Counts as Law
What Counts as Law
A source-first map of US legal authority with a pinned constitutional anchor.
Structured Visual
Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-08-28; not legal advice; Render structure, refuse interpretation, cite, abstain, and hand off.
RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.
Scope and honesty note
Jurisdiction: United States structural overview; as of 2026-08-28; jurisdictions vary; not legal advice. This lesson renders source and process structure, refuses interpretation, cites, abstains, and hands off.
See the essential structure first
Begin by identifying the source family before comparing authority or interpreting text. This deliberately incomplete preview has 5 nodes; exceptions and legal consequences remain in the sourced prose below.
Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-08-28; not legal advice; Render structure, refuse interpretation, cite, abstain, and hand off.
RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.
Why source hierarchy comes first
US law is distributed across constitutions, enacted statutes, agency materials, judicial decisions, and procedure rules. A reader first identifies source type, jurisdiction, date, and status because those fields determine what comparison is even possible. Guidance is recorded as a source, not silently promoted to binding law.
A constitutional source anchor
The Constitution assigns granted legislative power to Congress. The quote supplies real text for the top source row without deciding any dispute. Verbatim snapshot text: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” Source: U.S. Const. art. I, § 1; https://www.neochart.com/catalog/constitution/articles/article_1/section_1/const_art1_sec1_1a59fd90b5f3/article_i_section_1_0001/index.html; data via neochart.com, snapshot 2026-08.
A source packet for an engineering team
A safe source packet stores the document type, issuing institution, jurisdiction, date, citation, exact text, and source URL. It does not attach an outcome, authority-weight score, or legal recommendation.
Read the hierarchy diagram
The diagram contains 7 source nodes. The branches are a vocabulary map: actual priority questions depend on jurisdiction, subject, date, and conflict rules, so the model stops before declaring which row controls.
Jurisdiction: US; as of 2026-08-28; not legal advice; Render structure, refuse interpretation, cite, abstain, and hand off.
RENDER STRUCTURE · REFUSE INTERPRETATION · CITE · ABSTAIN · HAND-OFF: render structure, refuse interpretation, cite provenance, abstain when unsupported, and hand off to human review.
Narrow summary
What counts as law begins as a provenance problem: identify the source and its coordinates, quote it accurately, then hand interpretation to the appropriate legal analysis.