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GET
Search the Government Index
Search primary law and regulatory material from US federal, state, and local government sources: statutes, regulations, codes, court opinions, and other government publications. Results come back in the standard web group, the same shape as a web result from /search. POST is available on the same path with the same fields as a JSON body. Unknown fields and invalid filter values are rejected with 400, and the error says which value to fix. query is required. Include the jurisdiction, agency or citation, and relevant date when known. k is the result count, from 1 to 100, defaulting to 10; general /search uses limit instead. Results are matched excerpts and may include historical versions, bill text, guidance, or third-party reproductions. Verify the issuer, jurisdiction, enacted/effective status, and version before citing current governing law. Read the source behind a match when the snippet is insufficient. The index focuses on US material; no hits does not establish that no applicable law exists.

Filters

All filters are optional and combine with AND semantics. Filters keep only pages the index has labeled, so a filtered search can leave out relevant pages, and no results does not mean none exist. Court labels are most complete for federal courts and case-law collections.
For a workflow overview, see the Government Index guide.

Authorizations

Authorization
string
header
required

Bearer authentication header of the form Bearer <token>, where <token> is your auth token.

Query Parameters

query
string
required

Natural-language question or search phrase.

Minimum string length: 1
k
integer
default:10

Number of results to return.

Required range: 1 <= x <= 100
jurisdiction
string

Keep only pages of one jurisdiction: us for federal, or us- plus a two-letter state or territory code, such as us-ca or us-dc.

Example:

"us-ca"

court
string

Keep only pages labeled for one court, by CourtListener court id, such as scotus, ca9 or nysd.

Minimum string length: 1
courtType
enum<string>

Keep only pages from one type of court: federal-supreme, federal-appellate, federal-district, federal-bankruptcy, federal-special, military, state-supreme, state-appellate, state-trial, state-special, state-attorney-general.

Available options:
federal-supreme,
federal-appellate,
federal-district,
federal-bankruptcy,
federal-special,
military,
state-supreme,
state-appellate,
state-trial,
state-special,
state-attorney-general
cites
string

Keep only pages that cite one law or case, as a printed citation such as 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or 5 U.S. 137, or a citation id such as us:usc:42:1983.

Minimum string length: 1
domain
string

Keep only pages from one site, such as irs.gov.

Minimum string length: 1

Response

Ranked Government Index results in the web group.

success
boolean
data
object