The data-journalism layer
The shape of American local law
Every labeled section carries four scores — how opaque, strict, paternalistic, and discretionary it is. Rolled up by geography and subject, they let you compare the character of law across the country.
35%
Avg. opacity
0–100, national
50%
Avg. strictness
Atlas dimension
45%
Substantive
Rules ∪ Enforcement
7.5M
Labeled sections
By state
Choose a dimension to re-rank. Live from the rollup cube.
- Colorado 41
- Florida 41
- Nevada 40
- Utah 39
- Georgia 39
- Oregon 38
- Virginia 38
- Tennessee 38
- Washington 38
- California 38
- Idaho 38
- Arkansas 38
- Maryland 37
- Rhode Island 37
- Wisconsin 37
Higher = more opaque. n = sections behind each state’s score; small-n states omitted.
Most-regulated subjects
By sections tagged, across the labeled corpus.
- 917kgovernance structure
- 883kzoning
- 600ktraffic
- 584kfinance taxation
- 484kwater sewer utility
- 433krecords admin
- 395kstreets sidewalks
- 306kpublic order
- 299kbuilding codes
- 277kwater quality
- 240kpersonnel ethics
- 218kdomestic animals
What sections do
Five-class function distribution.
Rules 35%
Context 27%
Structural 17%
Process 12%
Enforcement 9%
Scores are 0–1 model estimates (llama-3.3-70b teacher labels), intended for distillation into a ModernBERT classifier at full scale. They’re directional, not legal advice.
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