🇺🇸 US Legal MCP Server

Comprehensive US legal data in your AI workflow. Search Congress bills, Federal Register documents, court opinions, and committees. No API keys required (optional for enhanced access).

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that brings authoritative US legal information into AI coding environments like Cursor and Claude Desktop.

Why Use US Legal MCP?

• 🆓 No API Keys Required – Works out of the box (optional keys for enhanced access)
• 🎯 Jev High-Confidence Filter – Optional TypeSafe Jev scoring drops poor matches
• 📜 Comprehensive Sources – Congress, Federal Register, CourtListener
• ⚡ Easy Setup – One-click install in Cursor or simple manual setup
• 🔍 Multi-Source Search – Search across all legal sources simultaneously
• 📊 Real-time Data – Recent bills, regulations, and court opinions

Quick Start

Ready to explore US legal data? Install in seconds:

Install in Cursor (Recommended):

🔗 Install in Cursor

Or install manually:

npm install -g us-legal-mcp
# Or from source:
git clone https://github.com/JamesANZ/legal-mcp.git
cd legal-mcp && npm install && npm run build

Features

📜 Congress.gov

• search-congress-bills – Search bills and resolutions
• get-recent-bills – Get recently introduced legislation
• get-congress-committees – List Congressional committees

📋 Federal Register

• search-federal-register – Search regulations and executive orders
• get-recent-regulations – Get recently published documents

⚖️ CourtListener

• search-court-opinions – Search court opinions (federal and state)
• get-recent-court-opinions – Get recent court decisions

🎯 Jev Relevance Filter (optional)

When TYPESAFE_API_KEY (or JEV_API_KEY) is set in the MCP server env, query-based search tools send each hit to Jev (TypeSafe System One) and only return high-confidence matches. Poor or low-confidence results are dropped. Without a key the server keeps its existing keyword scoring.

Filtered tools: search_congress_bills, search_federal_register, search_all_legal, search_court_opinions, search_regulator_news, search_digital_asset_regulation. Lookup tools (get_bill_details, recent lists, curated acts) are unchanged.

🔍 Multi-Source

• search-all-legal – Comprehensive search across all sources
• search_digital_asset_regulation – Aggregate search (Congress + Federal Register + all regulator feeds) scoped to crypto/stablecoin topics

🪙 Digital Asset & Crypto Legislation

• get_genius_act_info – Curated reference for the GENIUS Act (S.1582, 119th Cong., Pub. L. 119-27) — US payment stablecoin framework
• get_clarity_act_info – Curated reference for the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act (H.R.3633, 119th Cong.) — SEC/CFTC digital-asset jurisdiction
• get_curated_act – Fetch any curated act by slug (genius-act, clarity-act)
• get_bill_details – Live Congress.gov metadata for any bill (by billId like s1582-119 or hr3633-119)
• get_bill_actions – Full chronological action history for a bill
• get_bill_text – All text versions (Introduced, Engrossed, Enrolled…) with PDF/HTML/XML links
• get_public_law_text – GovInfo public law package + truncated full text (e.g., 119-27 for GENIUS Act)

🏛️ Regulator News Feeds

• get_recent_regulator_news – Recent press releases from OCC, SEC, CFTC, Federal Reserve, Treasury, or FinCEN
• search_regulator_news – Keyword search across any/all regulator press-release feeds

Installation

Cursor (One-Click)

Click the install link above or use:

cursor://anysphere.cursor-deeplink/mcp/install?name=legal-mcp&config=eyJsZWdhbC1tY3AiOnsiY29tbWFuZCI6Im5weCIsImFyZ3MiOlsiLXkiLCJ1cy1sZWdhbC1tY3AiXX19

Manual Installation

Requirements: Node.js 18+ and npm

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/JamesANZ/legal-mcp.git
cd legal-mcp
npm install
npm run build

# Run server
npm start

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "us-legal-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/legal-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "CONGRESS_API_KEY": "",
        "COURT_LISTENER_API_KEY": "",
        "GOVINFO_API_KEY": "",
        "TYPESAFE_API_KEY": ""
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after configuration.

In Cursor, the same optional TYPESAFE_API_KEY (or JEV_API_KEY) can be added under Settings → MCP → us-legal-mcp → env. Leave it blank to keep keyword-only ranking.

Usage Examples

Search Congress Bills

Find bills related to a specific topic:

{
  "tool": "search-congress-bills",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "immigration",
    "congress": 118,
    "limit": 10
  }
}

Search Federal Regulations

Find regulations on a topic:

{
  "tool": "search-federal-register",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "environmental protection",
    "limit": 5
  }
}

Comprehensive Legal Search

Search across all sources simultaneously:

{
  "tool": "search-all-legal",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "healthcare",
    "limit": 20
  }
}

Search Court Opinions

Find court decisions:

{
  "tool": "search-court-opinions",
  "arguments": {
    "query": "immigration asylum",
    "court": "scotus",
    "limit": 10
  }
}

Data Sources

API Keys (Optional)

Congress.gov API Key

1. Visit https://api.congress.gov/
2. Sign up for a free account
3. Get your API key
4. Set CONGRESS_API_KEY environment variable

CourtListener API Key

1. Visit https://www.courtlistener.com/api/
2. Create a free account
3. Get your API key from your profile
4. Set COURT_LISTENER_API_KEY environment variable

GovInfo API Key

1. Visit https://api.data.gov/signup/ to request a free key
2. Set GOVINFO_API_KEY environment variable. Without it the server falls back to DEMO_KEY (rate-limited).

Jev / TypeSafe API Key (optional)

Used to check whether each search hit actually matches the user's request. The server runs without this key. Add it in your MCP config env if you want high-confidence filtering.

1. Create a key in the TypeSafe console (or use a compatible gateway)
2. Set TYPESAFE_API_KEY in the MCP server env (alias: JEV_API_KEY)
3. Optional overrides:
   • JEV_MIN_RELEVANCE – keep threshold, 0–1 (default 0.85)
   • JEV_MODEL – default jev-latest
   • TYPESAFE_BASE_URL – default https://api.typesafe.ai

When the filter is on, search results include a Jev score (e.g. Jev 0.94) and a short note of how many poor matches were dropped. If Jev is unreachable, the server falls back to keyword scoring so tools still return data.

Use Cases

• Legal Researchers – Quick access to bills, regulations, and court opinions
• Policy Analysts – Track legislation and regulatory changes
• Lawyers – Reference tool for case law and regulations
• Developers – Build apps with authoritative legal data

Technical Details

Built with: Node.js, TypeScript, MCP SDK
Dependencies: @modelcontextprotocol/sdk, axios, fast-xml-parser, zod
Optional: Jev via TYPESAFE_API_KEY for high-confidence search filtering
Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux

Contributing

⭐ If this project helps you, please star it on GitHub! ⭐

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

MIT License – see LICENSE file for details.

Support

If you find this project useful, consider supporting it:

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