Even though you can access the U.S. Code on several free websites and in the free Fastcase app, it is often nice to have law on your iPhone in a dedicated app that is fast and doesn't require an Internet connection. There are several offerings in the App Store that contain part of the U.S. Code, but Shawn Bayern has just released an app called U.S. Code that contains the entire text of the U.S. Code, and it is free. Bayern is an Assistant Professor at Florida State University College of Law, where he currently teaches Torts and Agency & Partnership. He has previously taught at Duke Law School and U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).
The app covers the basics and does it well. Upon starting the app, you can either search by keyword or by citation. So if you know the cite of a statute, you can just type it in and jump directly there.
When you view a statute, the text is easy to read, and even includes historical and revision notes. You can tap arrows at the bottom left to browse backwards or forwards through statutes. You can tap a plus sign to add a statute to a list of bookmarks for easy access later. You can use the iPhone copy function to copy a part of a statute, or you can easily tap a button at the bottom right to create an e-mail with the full text of the statute you are viewing.
When you search by keyword, terms start to appear as you are typing the letters in your search. If you enter multiple keywords, the app finds every statute that contains both terms (an AND search).
This app is very useful, and you can't beat the price of free. As noted above, several other developers sell individual titles of the U.S. Code. For example, there are three different developers selling Title 28 of the U.S. Code at the prices of $0.99, $7.99 and $14.99. With Prof. Bayern (pictured at right) offering the entire U.S. Code for free, those other apps will have to compete on features.
For example, Cliff Maier's $7.99 version of Title 28 offers many features not contained in Prof. Bayern's app. First, you can view each section with an outline along the side that makes it easier to skip through the different subparts of a section. Second, the search options are much more rebust. Not only can you do an OR or an AND search for terms or a search for a phrase, but the search results show each section followed by an excerpts showing your search terms used and highlighted so you can quickly browse through results to find what you need. In Prof. Bayern's app, you just get a list of the statutes containing the keywords, and you have to view each statute individually to determine how the term is being used (although each keyword is in bold, which makes it easier to find). Plus, by using an app dedicated to a particular title, you know that you are only searching within that title and not getting irrelevant hits from other titles.
Thus, if there is a particular part of the U.S. Code that is important to your practice, you may find it helpful to spend a few dollars on a dedicated app with more features. If Prof. Bayern decides to add more features in the future, this app will become even more competitive with the paid apps. But even in its current form, the free app is so useful and nicely done that I suspect that most attorneys and law students will want to download it for their iPhones. Especially if you are a student of Prof. Bayern.
[UPDATE 2/11/10: iPhone J.D. reader Jonathan, who runs the Used and Enthused website, notes in a comment to this post that this app does not contain the very latest version of the U.S. Code. I asked Prof. Bayern about this, and here is his response:
For each release, the app will contain a current copy of the most recent electronic publication of the US Code by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives, which I understand to be the official version. For most titles at the moment, the last such update was in January 2009; for some titles, it was January 2008.
Of course, statutes have been passed since then which will eventually alter the "US Code," and services like Westlaw and Lexis incorporate what amount to unofficial relevant running updates into their volumes -- what they call the the USCA and USCS, respectively. But that's not the "United States Code."
More practically and less technically, I don't think any app that doesn't draw from either Westlaw or Lexis, under license, will have more up-to-date text. Of course, they could, if they independently edit the text of the code for each statute that's passed, but one reason Westlaw and Lexis are so expensive is that kind of manual editing requires a lot of work.
I do plan to release updates as the official US Code updates become available. As Wikipedia describes it (I should be able to find a better source, but as I learned in practice, when this stuff is disputed it's incredibly difficult to untangle): "The [version published by the OLRC] may be as much as 18 months behind current legislation, but it is the most up to date official version."
I didn't realize that this is how this works, so thanks to the good professor for educating me. Plus, this is an important caveat that you should keep in mind as you use this app. Thanks to Jonathan for raising the issue.]