---
title: "Keyword Search within a Jurisdiction"
method: GET
path: "/api/v1/jurisdictions/{jurisdiction_key}/laws/search"
tags: ["Law Divisions"]
---

# Keyword Search within a Jurisdiction

`GET /api/v1/jurisdictions/{jurisdiction_key}/laws/search`

Heuristic keyword search within a specific Jurisdiction (and optionally, federal Laws at the same time with `with_federal`). The search scope will include statutes, rules, regulations, and constitutions.

## Path parameters

- `jurisdiction_key` string, required

## Query parameters

- `query` string, required
- `type` 'or' | 'and' | 'phrase'
- `with_federal` boolean
- `updated_since` string, date
- `limit` integer
- `offset` integer

## Response `200`

Array of Divisions

- Division[]
  - `jurisdiction_key` string, nullable, required — Two to three letter Jurisdiction Key. `FED` for federal and generally, the postal abbreviation for most U.S. states and territories.
  - `law_key` string, required — A unique identifier for OpenLaws Laws. A `law_key` is a combination of a jurisdiction_key and an abbreviation of a law type.
  - `label` string, required — Human-readable identifier for the Division; guaranteed to be unique among its sibling Divisions
  - `path` string, required — The concatenation of all of the Division's ancestors' labels resulting in a filepath-like string
  - `division_type` string, required — OpenLaws standardization of the Division document type
  - `identifier` string, required — The source document's identifier
  - `range_end_identifier` string, nullable, required — If the Division is part a range, this contains the ending value for the identifier range, e.g., §§ 100 to 200 -> 200 is the range_end_identifier.
  - `name` string, nullable, required — The name of the document from the source document.
  - `display_name` string, nullable, required — OpenLaws concatenation of the division_type, identifier, and name along with some business logic to create a reliable, human-friendly string to use for display for this Division. For example, 'Title 12: Banking and Finance'
  - `effective_date` string — (DEPRECATION WARNING: This will be deprecated in favor of effective_date_start and effective_date_end.) If the source document and annotations contain an effective date, this field will be contain the start and end date as a range. Positive and negative infinity indicate the effective date is unbounded.
  - `effective_date_start` union, required — ISO Date with additional support for positive and negative Infinity values to represent ranges.
    - string
    - '-Infinity' | 'Infinity'
  - `effective_date_end` union, required — ISO Date with additional support for positive and negative Infinity values to represent ranges.
    - string
    - '-Infinity' | 'Infinity'
  - `aliases` string, nullable — Contains short or common names for the Division
  - `plaintext_content` string, required — Plaintext content without rich text formatting and markup to define pincite locations. Suitable for use with LLMs.
  - `markdown_content` string, required — Rich text content in Commonmark with CSS annotations. Meant to be rendered into human-readable HTML along with the OpenLaws Markdown CSS.
  - `annotations` string, nullable, required — Annotations and interpretations if available from the official source.
  - `display_ancestors` DivisionDisplay[], required — **(Law Firm and Enterprise plans only.)** Array of ancestors Divisions with display_name and paths. This can be used to render navigation breadcrumbs or giving LLMs context for the current Division.
    - `display_name` string, required — OpenLaws concatenation of the division_type, identifier, and name along with some business logic to create a reliable, human-friendly string to use for display for this Division. For example, 'Title 12: Banking and Finance'
    - `path` string, required — The concatenation of all of the Division's ancestors' labels resulting in a filepath-like string
  - `display_children` DivisionDisplay[], required — **(Law Firm and Enterprise plans only.)** Array of children Divisions with display_name and paths. This can be used to render a list of child Divisions for the current Division.
    - `display_name` string, required — OpenLaws concatenation of the division_type, identifier, and name along with some business logic to create a reliable, human-friendly string to use for display for this Division. For example, 'Title 12: Banking and Finance'
    - `path` string, required — The concatenation of all of the Division's ancestors' labels resulting in a filepath-like string
  - `source_url` string — **(Law Firm and Enterprise plans only.)** Authoritative Source URL for law. Deep-links to the source where supported.
  - `current_as_of` string, date, nullable — Nullable ISO 8601 Date
  - `updated_at` string, date, nullable — Nullable ISO 8601 Date
  - `is_repealed` boolean, nullable, required — (Experimental) Whether the Division is repealed, contingent repealed, or no longer effective.
  - `is_reserved` boolean, nullable, required — (Experimental) Whether the Division identifier and range_end_identifier are reserved by the Jurisdiction
  - `renumbered` string, nullable, required — (Experimental) Contains the new identifier and location where the Division was renumbered to.

## Other responses

- `400` — Bad Request. Please check your jurisdiction and citation format.
- `401` — Unauthorized. Check that you are passing an Authorization header with "Bearer <your-token>".
- `404` — Not Found.
- `429` — Too Many Requests. Rate limit hit. Please wait before retrying.
- `500` — Server Error.

---

[API](https://skmtc.net/openlaws/apis/openlaws-api-documentation.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.net/openlaws/apis/openlaws-api-documentation/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-staging.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/openlaws/openlaws-api-documentation/revisions/2cc125dd186d/schema)