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#What Is Statutory Law? Definition, Cases - Examples - Video - Lesson Transcript

Instructor: Jessica Schubert

Jessica is a practicing attorney and has taught law and has a J.D. and LL.M.

After you complete this lesson, you will be able to identify and understand what constitutes a statutory law. Moreover, you will review a significant Supreme Court case related to the subject and review some examples of statutory laws.

Definition

Let's say you are driving on a highway where the posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour. However, you are in a rush, so you decide to go 70 miles per hour. A police officer pulls you over, and you are given a citation for violating the speed limit. You have broken a vehicle and traffic law. This law is established by legislature as a statute, or a law that is formally written and enacted. As a result, the law you broke was a statutory law.

Federal Statutory Laws

Laws that are enacted by the U.S. Congress are federal statutory laws. A federal statutory law is introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate as a public law bill. The bill will be reviewed in special committee, considered with hearings and subjected to debates. These activities help to make sure that the law is valid and acceptable. After review, the House and Senate will vote on the statute. If the law is approved, it will be presented to the President, who can either disapprove (known as a veto ) or approve the law. Thereafter, the law will be given a formal number and title and will be published in the United States Code legal books.

State and Local Statutory Laws

Similar to federal statutory laws, state and local governments make their own statutory laws. These laws follow a similar process to the aforementioned federal statutory law enactment process, including committee evaluation, hearings and debate.

Case Example

Federal, state and local statutory laws must be constitutional. A failure to abide by the U.S. Constitution will result in a law becoming overturned. or reversed. One case that resulted in the declaration that a statutory law was unconstitutional was Lawrence v. Texas . In this 2003 Supreme Court case, the Court struck down a Texas sodomy law. Moreover, because Supreme Court rulings are extended to state laws, this ruling resulted in 13 additional state laws that deemed similar statutory laws unconstitutional.

In the Lawrence v. Texas case, there was a sodomy statute that made same-sex sexual acts illegal. The Texas statute stated that if a person engaged in 'deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex,' it was a Class C misdemeanor. Several homosexual men challenged the law after being charged with the misdemeanor crime. The Supreme Court struck down the law on the grounds that the law violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.