50a USC Rule - Definitions | LII / Legal Information Institute

prev | next

For the purposes of this Act [sections 501 to 515 and 516 to 597b of this Appendix]:

(1) Servicemember

The term “servicemember” means a member of the uniformed services, as that term is defined in section 101 (a)(5) of title 10, United States Code.

(2) Military service

The term “military service” means—

(A) in the case of a servicemember who is a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard—

(i) active duty, as defined in section 101 (d)(1) of title 10, United States Code, and

(ii) in the case of a member of the National Guard, includes service under a call to active service authorized by the President or the Secretary of Defense for a period of more than 30 consecutive days under section 502 (f) of title 32, United States Code, for purposes of responding to a national emergency declared by the President and supported by Federal funds;

(B) in the case of a servicemember who is a commissioned officer of the Public Health Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, active service; and

(C) any period during which a servicemember is absent from duty on account of sickness, wounds, leave, or other lawful cause.

(3) Period of military service

The term “period of military service” means the period beginning on the date on which a servicemember enters military service and ending on the date on which the servicemember is released from military service or dies while in military service.

(4) Dependent

The term “dependent”, with respect to a servicemember, means—

(A) the servicemember’s spouse;

(B) the servicemember’s child (as defined in section 101 (4) of title 38, United States Code); or

(C) an individual for whom the servicemember provided more than one-half of the individual’s support for 180 days immediately preceding an application for relief under this Act.

(5) Court

The term “court” means a court or an administrative agency of the United States or of any State (including any political subdivision of a State), whether or not a court or administrative agency of record.

(6) State

The term “State” includes—

(A) a commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States; and

(B) the District of Columbia.

(7) Secretary concerned

The term “Secretary concerned”—

(A) with respect to a member of the armed forces, has the meaning given that term in section 101 (a)(9) of title 10, United States Code;

(B) with respect to a commissioned officer of the Public Health Service, means the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and

(C) with respect to a commissioned officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, means the Secretary of Commerce.

(8) Motor vehicle

The term “motor vehicle” has the meaning given that term in section 30102 (a)(6) of title 49, United States Code.

(9) Judgment

The term “judgment” means any judgment, decree, order, or ruling, final or temporary.

Source

(Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title I, § 101, as added Pub. L. 108–189, § 1,Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2836; amended Pub. L. 108–454, title VII, § 701,Dec. 10, 2004, 118 Stat. 3624.)

Prior Provisions

A prior section 511, acts Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, art. I, § 101,54 Stat. 1179; Pub. L. 92–540, title V, § 504(1),Oct. 24, 1972, 86 Stat. 1098; Pub. L. 102–12, § 9(1),Mar. 18, 1991, 105 Stat. 38; Pub. L. 107–330, title III, § 305,Dec. 6, 2002, 116 Stat. 2826, related to definitions, prior to the general amendment of this Act by Pub. L. 108–189.

Amendments

2004—Par. (9). Pub. L. 108–454added par. (9).

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Tuesday, April 16, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

50a USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

This is a list of parts within the Code of Federal Regulations for which this US Code section provides rulemaking authority.

This list is taken from the Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules provided by GPO [Government Printing Office].

It is not guaranteed to be accurate or up-to-date, though we do refresh the database weekly. More limitations on accuracy are described at the GPO site.

50a USC Rule - Definitions

U.S. Code Toolbox

Law about... Articles from Wex

Find a Lawyer

Get Involved