Comments on: How to Decode Law Histories

By: Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:31:03 +0000

That’s fascinating, Ellen. I had absolutely no idea that any states were doing anything like that. I’ve made a note that, when I get to Texas, I’ll need to find a method of incorporating that meticulously cataloged data into the site. I’m impressed that Texas would go to that kind of work. Thank you for sharing that!

By: Ellen Augustiniak

Ellen Augustiniak — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:14:07 +0000

When I worked at the TX Legislature’s library, the leg was working on automating part of what you touch on here: an “Index to Sections Affected” (or what you refer to as “all laws amended by a given portion of the Acts of the General Assembly.) The non-automated process involved having humans (librarians) reading through legislation and entering data about which sections of the TX codes and statues were affected by each bill, at each stage of the legislative process (introduced, reported, engrossed, reported from the other house, enrolled). (Online here, btw http://www.lrl.state.tx.us/legis/isaf/lrlhome.cfm) It was a manual process at the time because bills weren’t written in a standard-enough way to allow automated parsing.
Of course, that was forward-looking, as opposed to what you’re doing here. I look forward to seeing what you come up with when working backwards from the history sections!

By: Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:45:28 +0000

I can walk you through that Florida history note; it’s reasonably clear – or maybe I’ve been doing it too long!

Thank you, Rich—I think I’m going to take you up on that! When I reach the end of my understanding, if I’m still not clear on things, I’ll e-mail you for some assistance. I sure appreciate it!

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:07:23 +0000

I can walk you through that Florida history note; it’s reasonably clear – or maybe I’ve been doing it too long!
Given a statute’s history note and the General Laws of Florida (PDFs available from 1997 on, via http://laws.flrules.org/), one can trace the changes to any statute. Given the materials in the state archive (committee meetings, transcripts, Floor debate, etc), one can often put together the “whens and whys,” also. I’d love to work on a project moving all of this stuff to a web-friendly/data-friendly format, particularly moving statute histories into a wiki-like structure, with narratives and historical data attached… alas, an agency lawyer can only do so much!

By: Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:25:51 +0000

who actually KNOWs how this works and actually updates the Va code after each GA?

No doubt everybody who works for the Virginia Code Commission knows well how this works. I believe it's Lexis Nexis who keeps these section histories updated.

You mention Florida. Is this process the basic process for most states?

Unfortunately, I can't say—I haven't studied enough states in enough detail to know! Check back with me in 12 months. ;)

What would be useful in this discussion IMHO would be to provide an example from the current GA – perhaps the law that requires Ultra-sounds…eh?

Well, because none of the 2012 session's bills have been codified yet, we don't actually have those examples to draw from. That won't happen until July 1. HB462 amends § 18.2-76, which has a history that currently reads as such: Code 1950, § 18.1-62.1; 1970, c. 508; 1972, c. 823; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1979, c. 250; 1997, c. 801; 2001, cc. 473, 477; 2003, c. 784. Presumably, come July, its history will read like such: Code 1950, § 18.1-62.1; 1970, c. 508; 1972, c. 823; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1979, c. 250; 1997, c. 801; 2001, cc. 473, 477; 2003, c. 784.; 2012, c. ### ("###" stands in for the identifier within the 2012 Acts of the General Assembly, which hasn't yet been published, so there's no telling what it'll be.)

By: LarryG

LarryG — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:45:06 +0000

who actually KNOWs how this works and actually updates the Va code after each GA?

Is this a small group of people in an obscure state office that are in charge of keeping track of code changes via their seemingly arcane process?

You mention Florida. Is this process the basic process for most states?

Essentially what this stuff seems to be is ….. a history of a particular code.

A newly-passed law can also alter more than one code section.

What would be useful in this discussion IMHO would be to provide an example from the current GA – perhaps the law that requires Ultra-sounds…eh?