Fact check: False claim legal statute defines US as a private company

Molly Stellino, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Title 28 says the US is a private, for-profit corporation

A Jan. 5 Instagram video (direct link, archived link) shows several pages from the book "Meet Your Strawman: And Whatever You Want To Know" as a man reads from it.

“The United States Corporation is a private company,” reads a bolded sentence in the book, which also asserts Congress, police and courts are part of that company. A later section of the book asserts the purpose of this and any other company is "to make money for its owners."

The social media user cites a statute from the U.S. Code as the source for the claim.

“(15) ‘United States’ means— (A) a Federal corporation; (B) an agency, department, commission, board, or other entity of the United States; or (C) an instrumentality of the United States,” reads the video’s caption.

The post was liked more than 7,000 times in just over two months. Other versions of the claim appeared on Facebook, Instagram and Reddit.

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Our rating: False

The statute in question does not say the U.S. is a private, for-profit corporation, according to legal experts. Instead, the statute defines what the term “United States” refers to when it is used in one specific section of the U.S. Code describing federal debt collection procedures. This definition lists a “federal corporation” as one of several entities of the U.S. that people can owe money to.

Statute refers to federal entities that collect money

The code referenced in the post, 28 USC § 3002(15), is part of Title 28 of the U.S. Code, which describes the procedures of the judiciary, said Arthur Hellman, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

The social media user accurately quoted the statute but misinterpreted its meaning.

“The first rule for figuring out what a statute means is to look at the context,” Hellman said.

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In the statute, the term “United States” is listed as the 15th item in the list of 16 definitions that are used in a part of the U.S. Code that outlines procedures for federal debt collection, Hellman said. These definitions are only for the purpose of that specific chapter.

This definition of the U.S. refers to the federal entities that people can owe money to, he said.

“In other words, it’s describing the different entities that are referred to in this code with the generic term ‘United States.’ And that’s all it’s doing,” Hellman said. “It doesn’t remotely say that the United States is a federal corporation.”

Federal corporations are created by Congress

Most companies in the U.S. are created by individuals, but some are created by Congress – entities referred to as federal corporations, said Clark Kelso, a professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. Examples include Amtrak, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Export-Import Bank.

Congress establishes federal corporations “to perform a public purpose, which provides a market-oriented product or service,” reads a Congressional Research Service report on the corporations.

Exterior rendering of Amtrak's new Airo trainset.
Exterior rendering of Amtrak's new Airo trainset.

“Section 3002 is not intended to define the ‘United States’ broadly or comprehensively,” he said. “Its definition applies only to the chapter dealing with procedures and remedies for recovering certain debts.”

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: No, federal statute doesn't say US is a private company