References and Primary Sources
Many pages on this site carry a References and Primary Sources card. This page explains what those cards contain, why the underlying documents are published, and what a primary source can and cannot establish. It applies to every such card, so the explanation is not repeated page by page.
A claim about what a law says, or about what its drafters intended, rests on a record. Where that record is a specific page of a specific document, that page is reproduced directly rather than described. The reader sees the source, not a characterization of it.
A primary source shows what a particular document says. It does not, on its own, show that the document is representative. Any set of excerpts is a selection, and a selection can be arranged to support a conclusion the full record would not.
The response to that limit is structural. Each card names the exact pages used, links the complete document, and links a full-text search of it. A reader can locate the quoted passage, read the pages around it, and search the entire source for terms the selection may have omitted. The selection is published together with the means to test it.
- Our excerpts
- The exact pages reproduced on the page you came from. This is where a quoted or scanned passage is found.
- Start at
- A wider page range that contains the excerpt in its context, so a reader opening a long volume lands in the right place rather than on page one.
- Full text (searchable)
- A link to the complete document with search across its full text. Use it to read past the excerpt and to check the source for terms or passages the excerpt does not include.
- Index
- Where a document has its own index, a link to it. An index is the document’s own subject or page finder, distinct from a full-text search.
- Page-image links
- Where a scan is shown, the image links to a full-size copy of that page. The scan is a faithful reproduction of a public-domain original and carries no new copyright.