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US Legal MCP Server

An MCP server that provides comprehensive US legislation.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jamesanz-us-legal-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/absolute/path/to/legal-mcp/dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

This MCP server brings authoritative US legal data into your AI tooling. It aggregates Congress bills, the Federal Register, and CourtListener opinions so you can perform multi-source searches and stay up to date with recent laws, regulations, and decisions right from your development environment.

How to use

You run the US Legal MCP Server in your environment and connect your MCP client (such as Claude Desktop or Cursor) to it. Use the provided tools to search across Congress.gov, the Federal Register, and CourtListener, or run a comprehensive search that covers all sources. When you query, you’ll get results from the selected sources, enabling you to incorporate current legal data into your AI workflows.

How to install

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+ and npm. You will install and run the MCP server locally so your AI tools can access it.

# Clone the MCP server repository
git clone https://github.com/JamesANZ/legal-mcp.git
cd legal-mcp

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the server (if required by the project setup)
npm run build

# Start the server
npm start

Configuration and usage notes

Configure your AI client to connect to the MCP server via the local stdio interface shown in the example configuration. You will provide environment variables for optional API keys to enable enhanced access.

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

Claude Desktop and Cursor setup

To use the MCP server with Claude Desktop, add a configuration entry for the server in Claude’s settings so it can launch and query the MCP server. Restart Claude Desktop after adding the configuration.

Usage examples

Examples show how to perform typical searches once the MCP server is running and connected to your client.

Available tools

search-congress-bills

Search Congress bills and resolutions

get-recent-bills

Retrieve recently introduced legislation

get-congress-committees

List Congressional committees

search-federal-register

Search Federal Register regulations and orders

get-recent-regulations

Get recently published federal regulations

search-court-opinions

Search CourtListener court opinions (federal and state)

get-recent-court-opinions

Get recent CourtListener court decisions

search-all-legal

Comprehensive search across all sources