America Decoded

America Decoded is a project from the OpenGov Foundation that provides usable access to city and state laws from around the country.

America’s Laws Are the People’s Public Property

The State Decoded software provides you with a people-friendly way to access your local, state, and federal legal code.

• Careful organization by article and section makes browsing a breeze.
• A site-wide search allows you to find the laws you’re looking for by topic.
• Scroll-over definitions translate legal jargon into common English.
• Downloadable legal code lets you take the law into your own hands.
• Best of all, everything on the site remains cost-and restriction-free.

Access Denied?

America’s laws are the People’s public property. Nothing should stand between you and accessing the law.

Believe it or not, there are real barriers blocking access to the law at all levels of government, from federal clean water rules to local pet-ownership laws.

• Some cities and states outsource the complicated process of updating and organizing the law to experts. Those experts then copyright their part of the process. Violating their copyright could land you in court or worse . . . just for posting or sharing a piece of public law on the Internet. 

• Even when the law is online, worthless websites and disorganized data–like paper-based PDFs – make it all but impossible to find what you need, interact with content, or use the data to develop useful applications that improve the way citizens interface with the law.

• Complex, confusing legal jargon only makes knowing and protecting your rights that much harder.

Access Granted!

Now you can:

• Know your rights without having to pay hefty charges or spend countless hours sifting through giant stacks of outdated books at the public library.

• Share what you find with the world.

• Identify useless or harmful laws in your city, state, and country, and contact your elected officials about them by commenting directly on the sections that need to be changed.

• Develop useful applications for the law.