Public laws affect society as a whole, while private laws affect individuals and smaller groups.

Public and private laws are initially published as individual unbound pamphlets known as "slip laws." The Office of the Federal Register assigns law numbers, and for public laws, provides useful annotations in the margins of the document including:

• Public law number
• Date of enactment
• Statutes at Large citation
• U.S. Code citation
• Number of original bill
• Short title of the law
• Brief legislative history

Recent public laws are available in online sources almost immediately after publication.