Acronyms as titles for US laws
On Reddit in 2023, someone asked: “The US has a habit of giving its laws convoluted names because they make nice acronyms (eg the Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, which spells out PATRIOT). When did this first start and why?”
Responses include a bunch of discussion. Respondents cite a couple of older examples, such as the “Act for International Development or ‘AID Act’ of 1950” and the “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or ‘WARN Act’ of 1988.” But most of the discussion suggests that this approach to naming laws became popular in the late 1990s.
See also:
- Congressional acronym abuse, 1973-2013, by Noah Veltman.
- A Statute by Any Other (Non-Acronomial) Name Might Smell Less Like S.P.A.M., by Chris Sagers (1998)