Federal Law Code Gets a Language Overhaul: Stripping 'He' and 'She' for Gender-Neutral Terms

The “Equality in Laws Act” is a straightforward procedural bill aimed at modernizing the language used throughout the United States Code—the official collection of federal laws. Simply put, this bill directs the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives to systematically scrub the entire U.S. Code of gendered pronouns like “he,” “she,” and “his or hers,” replacing them with gender-neutral terms such as “the individual” or “their or theirs.” The core mandate is clear: update the language without changing the actual legal meaning of any law.

The Great Pronoun Swap

This isn't just about making laws sound more inclusive; it’s a massive editing job with specific instructions. The Law Revision Counsel must go through every title of the U.S. Code and swap out terms. For example, where a law might currently read, “The taxpayer shall file his or hers return by April 15th,” the Counsel would revise it to read, “The individual shall file their return by April 15th,” or simply, “The taxpayer shall file the return by April 15th.” The bill explicitly requires them to strike “he,” “him,” “she,” and “her” and replace them with terms like “they or them” or the appropriate title for the position (Sec. 2).

Why This Matters for the Real World

While this bill doesn't change policy—it won't affect your taxes, healthcare, or workplace rules—it’s important for clarity and accessibility. Think of it this way: when you’re reading a complicated legal document, the language used matters. If the law uses outdated or exclusionary language, it can create unnecessary confusion or signal that the law wasn't written with everyone in mind. For lawyers, judges, and people in the legal system, this change ensures the legal text is universally applicable and modern, reducing the chances of misinterpretation based on gendered phrasing. It’s essentially a massive, mandated software update for the operating system of federal law.

The Bureaucratic Challenge

Implementing this is a significant undertaking for the Law Revision Counsel, who must act as both editor and historian. They have to ensure that every linguistic change they make aligns perfectly with Congress's original intent when the law was first passed (Sec. 2). The process is slightly different depending on the law’s status: for laws already formally enacted into positive law (like Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure), the Counsel prepares revisions. For laws not yet enacted into positive law, they must draft entirely new amending legislation. The biggest practical challenge here is the sheer volume of work and the necessity of absolute accuracy—one misplaced word could inadvertently change the meaning of a law, even though the bill strictly prohibits that.