Sometimes they literally are the law, for example where paywalled standards are “incorporated by reference” into regulations. There are official workarounds [1]

Sometimes they literally are the law, for example where paywalled standards are “incorporated by reference” into regulations. There are official workarounds [1] — sometimes — but the situation of a law that isn’t freely available is disturbing. [1] https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/accessing-standards-incorporated-reference https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/accessing-standards-incorp...