A legislative history is the process of tracing a bill from introduction in
Congress through the legislative process. In order to properly trace a piece
of legislation, you will need to be familiar with the three types of law:
legislative, regulatory, and case law.
The legislative component of a federal legislative history originates with
the Congress of the United States in the form of bills or resolutions.
The regulatory component is under the direction of the Executive Agencies of
the U.S. Government such as the EPA, the FDA, and the FCC and is issued in
the form of rules or regulations or executive orders if issued by the
President.
Case law at the federal level can originate from any of the following courts:
U.S. District Courts; U.S. Court of Appeals (12 Regional Circuits and Federal
Circuit), and the Supreme Court.
In addition, it is important to remember that each piece of legislation and
all regulations must fall within the ideological parameters of the
Constitution and will be evaluated by the courts on that basis. The
following is a list of sources to be used in performing legislative history.
Constitution ||
Legislative
Administrative ||
Case Law
Constitution
Constitutional law forms the basis of all other types of law. The validity
of laws and regulations is evaluated on the basis that they do or do not fall
within the framework of the Constitution and legal precedent. The
Constitution is divided into articles, sections, and amendments and will be
cited in the following manner: Article II, sec. 2.
- 1. Constitution of the United States
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Location: Documents Reference Desk
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There are several copies of this available at the Documents reference
desk.
- 2. Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and
Interpretation
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Location: Documents Reference Desk
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This is an extensively annotated version of our Constitution that is updated
by supplements that contain the latest interpretations.
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Legislative
Legislation can take the form of bills or resolutions when introduced in
Congress. Bills can be introduced into the House or Senate or both. A bill
on a particular subject can be introduced in a different form in each
chamber. Therefore, a crime bill introduced in the House can differ greatly
from a crime bill introduced in the Senate. If the bill is to pass, the
differences will be ironed out in committee negotiations.
Resolutions can also be introduced independently, jointly, or concurrently
in the House and Senate. Depending on the publisher, the citations to bills
and resolutions can be formatted differently.
For example, some publications will cite a House bill as HB. While others
will use the letter designation HR for House of Representatives bill .
The Senate bills will either be cited as S or SB. Resolutions are cited as
follows: H Res, HJ Res, H Con Res, S Res, SJ Res, and S Con Res.
The final version of a bill or resolution that is passed by Congress is
called a Public Law or Private Law. A Public Law is a law that applies to
all citizens. A Private Law is one which applies to one person or a limited
number of people in special situations.
For the purpose of performing a legislative history, you will be dealing with
Public Laws. Public Laws are cited in the following manner: P.L. 100-346.
This refers to the 346th Public Law passed in the 100th Congress ( an
alternate citation will be discussed under the title United States Statutes
at Large).
For more information about the Congressional legislative process and
Congressional publications resulting from the legislative process, consult a
Documents Department staff member.
- 3. Congressional Index
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Location: Doc Ref, aisle R9
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This two volume index contains up-to-date information on bills and
resolutions introduced in Congress. There is a volume for the House and the
Senate. Information on the bills and resolutions can be accessed by the
following: bill or resolution number, sponsor, and subject. The "status of
bills" section identifies where in the legislative process a bill or
resolution is--what committees it has been sent to and what reports, if any,
have come out of the committees.
Note: If you find in the "status of bills" section that your bill or
resolution has been sent to committee, but no reports are listed and it has
not been listed as voted on, then most likely it has "died" in committee.
The most recent Congressional Index is located at the Documents
reference desk. Earlier Congresses are located in aisle R9.
- 4. Cumulative Index to House and Senate Bills
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Location: Documents Reference Desk
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Located at the Documents reference desk, the Cumulative Index is a guide to
House and Senate bills in microfiche. This is where you will find the actual
text of the bills and resolutions. You must use the index to find what fiche
number your bill or resolution is on. The House and Senate bills on
microfiche are located in the Documents microforms area.
- 5.Congressional Record
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Location:Documents Reference, aisle R11, R12, no.27
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The Record is the "verbatim" transcript of debates in Congress. It contains
an index to House and Senate bills and resolutions and will, on occasion,
also have the bills and amendments to bills.
The Record is a vital resource when researching legislation. It is the
source of determining the "legislative intent" of a law. To access
information in the Record, you may look in the biweekly index. The Record
is divided into four parts: House, Senate, Extension of Remarks, and Daily
Digest.
The index will indicate which section is being cited using an H, S, or E and
then a page number. The Daily Digest is the summary of activities, such as
votes and committee action. A Record citation will look like this: S3498 for
Senate section, page 3498.
- 6. United States Statutes at Large
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R8
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The Statutes (laws) contain all of the public and private laws of the U.S.
These can be cited in two ways. The first, by its law number--P.L. The
second is by the volume and page number in which it appears in the Statutes
at Large. The cite will appear in the following format: 102 stat. 346. This
refers to volume (not Congress) 102 of Statutes at Large, on page 346. This
is the page on which the law begins.
- 7.United States Code
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R8
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The Code is a subject compilation of the laws of the U.S. It is arranged
by title and section, for example: Title 18 is the criminal code and each
section within Title 18 deals with a different aspect of the criminal code.
- 8.
United States Code Service
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R8
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The USCS is a privately published version of the Code. It contains
additional information, in the form of historical references, annotations,
and references to the Code of Federal Regulations.
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Administrative
Administrative law is often complex and hard to locate. The language can
often be confusing for the average person. Administrative law takes the form
of rules, regulations, and executive orders and proclamations. It is
important to remember that it can take years for agencies to create rules and
regulations based on legislation from Congress.
If you are planning on researching a law that was passed within the last year
in may be difficult to find any regulatory action at all. It can take
anywhere from two weeks to two years or more for action to occur. When rules
and regulations are announced, they are first announced as proposed rules or
regulations in the proposed rules section of the Federal Register.
The public is then given a period of time to comment on the proposed rules or
regulations, usually at least 60 days. This is a result of the Federal
Register Act which states that no regulation can have legal force until
it is made available to the general public through publication. After the
comment period has expired, the agency considers the comments in the
rulemaking process.
When the final rule is announced in the Federal Register, the public
comments are summarized in the announcement, as are the changes, if any,
in the rule or regulation based on these comments. In the final announcement
you will find the following: name of agency, action (in the case of a final
rule it would say "final rule"), summary of comments and action, and the
effective date.
It is important to remember that the effective date is the date on which the
rule or regulation becomes law. Regulations are codified (arranged by subject
into titles and sections) in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Part of performing a legislative history can involve taking a regulation
found in it's final form in the CFR and tracing it back through it's
proposed rule stage to document any changes. Rules and regulations are cited
in two ways depending on the source. A rule or regulation found in the
Federal Register is cited in the following manner: 51 FR 2534. This refers
to volume, publication (Federal Register), and page number on which the rule
or regulation can be found.
A rule or regulation found in the CFR would be cited in the following
manner: 7 CFR 211.10 (1982). This refers to title, publication (Code of
Federal Regulations), section number, and date of CFR edition. The CFR is
revised on a quarterly basis. Meaning, one quarter of the CFR is revised
every quarter year. In order to bridge the gap between newly published
rules and regulations and the CFR, the CFR List of Sections Affected (LSA)
is published monthly.
Presidential executive orders and proclamations which have the force of law,
are located in Title 3 of the CFR; newly issued orders appear in the Federal
Register.
- 9. Federal Register
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R9
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The Register is published on a daily basis. It contains proposed rules and
regulations, final rules and regulations, changes to rules and regulations,
and announcements of public hearings on proposed rules and regulations. A
monthly and annual index is published in a separate volume.
- 10.
Code of Federal Regulations
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Location:Documents Reference, aisle R9
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This is a subject compilation of federal regulations and rules. The CFR has
an annual index that contains a subject index, and index to regulations by
P.L. number, and an agency index.
- 11.
CFR: List of Sections Affected
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R9
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This updates the CFR until the editions are revised. If any changes have
occurred in a title and section since the last edition was published, the
changes will appear under the title and section number in LSA.
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Case Law
This final step in the legislative process examines the validity of laws and
regulations through judicial interpretation. Is the law or regulation within
the bounds of the Constitution and existing law, also known as legal
precedent (some decisions do break with legal precedent, however, a courts
decision will often be stronger--stand up to the appeal process, if it is
based on precedent).
The U.S. federal and state court system is a hierarchical system. The
Supreme Court of the U.S. is the highest court in the country. Its decisions
appear in several sources. U.S. Reports, printed and published by the GPO,
Supreme Court Reporter from West Publishing, U.S. Law Week , and what is
known as the Lawyer's Edition from Lawyer's Cooperative Publishing.
It is important to remember that in these publications you will not find
transcripts of hearings. The cases reported in these publications include
the following information: a syllabus of the case (summary of legal issues),
and the opinions and dissenting opinions, if any, of the justices. Cases
heard at the appellate level and district court level are reported in the
Federal Reporter and the Federal Supplement respectively. A citation to a
case is comprised of three elements: volume, publication, and page number.
A typical citation is compiled in the following manner: 410 U.S. 113. The
abbreviation U.S. refers to U.S. Reports, F.2nd is used for the Federal
Reporter, and F.Supp. is used for the Federal Supplement. Consult the legal
encyclopedias, digests, and dictionaries available in the library.
- 12.
United States Reports
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R 7 & 8
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The U.S. Reports are cases heard before the Supreme Court. Volumes which are
not available in paper can be found on microfiche in the documents
microfiche collection. To locate cases on a particular topic or to find a
specific citation for a case consult the Supreme Court Digest.
- 13.
Supreme Court Reporter
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Location: Main Library, 4th floor, KS958, 1964-
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This is an annotated version of Supreme Court cases. It has explanatory
headnotes and references to other cases. The SCt (as it is abbreviated)
notes follow the West Key Number system.
- 14.
Federal Reporter
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle no.22, no.23, no.24, no.25, K .F293
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The Federal Reporter covers cases at the appellate court level (federal).
Citations to the Federal Reporter can be found through the use of legal
encyclopedias and digests.
- 15.
Federal Supplement
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle no.21, no.22, KF105.F4 1959-
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The Federal Supplement includes cases from the federal district courts.
Citations to federal district court cases can be found through the
use of legal encyclopedias and digests.
- 16.
U.S. Law Week
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Location: Documents Reference, aisle R7
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Law Week is a looseleaf service which is divided into two parts: Supreme
Court and General Law sections. The Supreme Court section provides a summary
of orders, cases filed, arguments, journal of the Court, table of cases,
topical index, and opinions of the Court.
The General Law section provides selected coverage of legal developments
unrelated to the Court, but which have national significance. Because U.S.
Law Week is a looseleaf service, it is updated on a weekly basis and can be
the best place to look for very current information.
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Internet Resources
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