Reference Library

The post-2008 financial-crisis reform statute — created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, restricted proprietary trading, and imposed heightened oversight of systemically important institutions.

Expanded health-insurance coverage through subsidized exchanges, Medicaid expansion, and an individual mandate — the largest expansion of American health coverage since Medicare.

Created the Department of Homeland Security by consolidating 22 federal agencies — the largest federal reorganization since the National Security Act of 1947.

Authorized the President to use 'all necessary and appropriate force' against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks — the legal foundation for two decades of counterterrorism operations.

Expanded federal surveillance authorities after 9/11 — roving wiretaps, expanded FISA and National Security Letter powers, and the controversial Section 215 bulk-records authority.

Defined marriage under federal law as one man and one woman and permitted states to refuse recognition of same-sex marriages performed elsewhere — struck down in Windsor and Obergefell.

Guaranteed most employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for the birth of a child, a serious health condition, or a family member's illness.

Prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, government services, public accommodations, and telecommunications.

Required federal agencies to protect species listed as endangered or threatened and prohibited the 'take' of listed species even on private land.

Prohibited the discharge of pollutants into U.S. waters without a federal permit and set the goal of eliminating water pollution.

Prohibited sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance — transformed women's participation in scholastic athletics.

Established national air-quality standards, required states to devise implementation plans, and empowered the new Environmental Protection Agency to enforce them.

Required federal agencies to prepare environmental impact statements for major actions and created the Council on Environmental Quality.

Outlawed discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing on the basis of race, religion, or national origin — signed a week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Abolished the national-origins quota system and reoriented U.S. immigration policy toward family reunification and skilled workers.

Created federal health insurance for Americans 65 and older (Medicare) and joint federal-state coverage for low-income Americans (Medicaid).

Banned racial discrimination in voting and required jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to preclear election changes with the federal government.

Outlawed segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in employment, and cut off federal funds to any program that discriminates.

The first federal civil-rights statute since Reconstruction — created the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Reorganized the American national-security establishment — created the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council.

Curtailed union power by prohibiting certain union practices, permitting state right-to-work laws, and empowering the president to enjoin national-emergency strikes.

Financed college tuition, home loans, and unemployment benefits for World War II veterans — the largest single expansion of the American middle class in the 20th century.

Established the federal minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek with overtime, and restrictions on child labor.

Guaranteed private-sector workers the right to organize, bargain collectively, and strike — and created the National Labor Relations Board to enforce it.

Established old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and federal aid for dependent children — the foundation of the modern American welfare state.

Created the Securities and Exchange Commission and imposed continuous disclosure obligations on public companies.

Separated commercial from investment banking and created federal deposit insurance through the FDIC.

Raised U.S. tariffs on more than 20,000 imported goods to historic highs — widely blamed for deepening the Great Depression and provoking global retaliation.

Imposed strict national-origins quotas designed to preserve the pre-1890 ethnic composition of the country and effectively barred all immigration from Asia.

Criminalized interference with military recruitment or the transmission of information hurtful to national defense — the statute at issue in Schenck v. United States.

Strengthened the Sherman Act by outlawing specific anticompetitive practices and exempting labor unions from antitrust liability.

Created the Federal Reserve System — twelve regional banks and a Washington Board of Governors — to serve as the nation's central bank.

Made 'every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade' and monopolization of interstate commerce federal offenses.

Created the Interstate Commerce Commission — the first modern federal regulatory agency — to police railroad rates and practices.

Suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers and barred all Chinese immigrants from naturalization — the first federal law to exclude a specific national group.

Guaranteed equal access to public accommodations regardless of race — struck down by the Supreme Court eight years later in the Civil Rights Cases.

Divided the former Confederacy into five military districts and conditioned readmission on ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment and adopting Black male suffrage.

The first federal statute defining citizenship and guaranteeing equal contract and property rights regardless of race — enacted over Andrew Johnson's veto.

Granted 160 acres of public land to any adult citizen who lived on and improved the parcel for five years — a landmark experiment in land redistribution.

Granted federal lands to states to endow public 'land-grant' colleges teaching agriculture, engineering, and the mechanic arts.

Repealed the Missouri Compromise and let settlers in each territory vote on slavery — the match that ignited 'Bleeding Kansas' and the collapse of the Second Party System.

A far harsher successor to the 1793 statute — required federal marshals and Northern citizens to help capture accused fugitives and denied the accused a jury trial.

Authorized President Jackson to negotiate the forced removal of southeastern tribes to lands west of the Mississippi — the legislative machinery of the Trail of Tears.

Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state and drew the 36°30′ line dividing future slave and free territory.

The Senate's ratification and Congress's appropriation of $15 million doubled the size of the country and established Congress's power to fund territorial acquisition.

A notorious Federalist package that criminalized criticism of the government and empowered the president to deport non-citizens — a stress test the First Amendment ultimately failed in its own era.

The first federal enforcement statute for the Fugitive Slave Clause — allowed slaveholders to seize escaped enslaved people in free states with minimal process.

The first ten Amendments, proposed by the First Congress to answer Anti-Federalist demands for explicit protections of individual liberty.

Created the federal judiciary — the Supreme Court's original size, the circuit and district courts, and the office of Attorney General.