How a Bill Becomes a Law
What is Statutory Law?
Statutory laws are the laws created by federal and state legislatures.
When a legislative body (e.g. the U.S. Congress or the Ohio Legislature) passes a bill, it becomes a statute after the executive signs it into law.
After searching Google and Nexis Uni you can then go to the resources on this page for other statutory laws and more info.
Finding Statutory Law at the Federal Level
- Recent Public Laws and Bills on Congress.govFind the text of recent public laws (1974-present) on the Congress.gov website. Search by public law number, bill number, or popular name. Also called "Thomas.gov".
- U.S. Code (current)The U.S. Code is a topical arrangement of all of the federal laws currently in force. The current version of the U.S. Code is available at the Office of the Law Revision Counsel website.
Finding Ohio Bills and Laws
All states also publish chronological public laws and codified laws. In Ohio, the topical arrangement of laws is called the Ohio Revised Code.
- Ohio Capitol Connection (Hannah)Search by bill number or bill text back to 1989 (118th General Assembly).
- Ohio Revised Code (current)Current version of the ORC through the website LAWriter. Note that information about historical bills that have amended a section is often not complete; for complete listing, look at the ORC Annotated in LexisNexis.
- Ohio Legislature WebsiteDefaults to this year. Includes the daily Journal, tracking what happens day by day. Archives of other years' sessions are here: http://archives.legislature.state.oh.us/
State Legislatures, Laws, & Codes
- Other U.S. State LegislaturesHere is a map of the US where you can easily find the state legislature you are researching. Within each of these sites you can find state laws, codes, bills, and legislative histories.