You might wonder why we feel it’s important to announce the appearance of new material in the US Code — after all, it happens all the time. But the birth of a whole new Title is a special event — and the short title of still-toddling Title 6 is “Domestic Security”. Thus the announcement: in the annual cycle of US Code updates, Title 6–DOMESTIC SECURITY was refreshed February 27, and it went up to three chapters from its original one.

That’s right — Domestic Security started its life in the US Code as a single chapter. This is very unusual. US Code titles “always” have at least three chapters (see, e.g.. the tiny, nearly invisible Title 9). But with Title 6, we are witnessing the start of a new title, complete with a single-chapter phase. The process started, in this case, with Public Law 107-296, the “Homeland Security Act of 2002“. The first codified version was distributed in January of 2004.

This isn’t the first Title 6 we’ve ever had. A prior Title 6, Surety Bonds, was enacted July 30, 1947, and was repealed Sept. 13, 1982. It had fifteen sections, whose content was either repealed or reclassified to other parts of the code. You may read the details of this in an often neglected part of the US Code, the notes.

One reason the notes are neglected is that they can become necessarily bulky and intimidating over the years, as they faithfully record many and complex changes. But with the new Title 6, we have a chance to see each transition happening for the first time, including the notes when they are fresh and still simple!