Preliminary matters
California bills that become law are officially published as "Chapter Laws" in chronological order. These are the equivalent of session laws.
Purpose
Legislative history traces a bill from its inception to when it becomes law or other final action. Legislative intent involves finding materials that would help determine why a bill was authored or what it was attempting to accomplish. Bills enacted more recently may contain introductory material that discuss the legislature's intent.
Identifying Chapter Laws and Public Acts
Annotations and credits are useful for identifying Chapter Law numbers. Commercial services may link to historic annotated codes and to session laws to quickly find public law and bill numbers. Check the information icon link for descriptions of content and years covered. It is unusual for these services to include complete collections of state committee reports, daily journals, hearing records, and other legislative history materials.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Resource for State Statutes: A Historical Archive and State Session Laws. May also include pre-statehood laws. - Lexis This link opens in a new window
Useful for identifying public law number and year, and for historic session laws. Lexis California Legislative History includes only bill analyses, including analyses by the Department of Finance, and governor's messages from 1999 through current. Limited coverage from the 1999 through 2005 sessions, and the 2008 session. - Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Useful for identifying public law number and year, and for historic session laws. Westlaw's California Legislative History is limited to California Bill Analysis & Other Reports, Committee Analyses and Journals beginning in 1993. Look for the information icon to determine coverage.
- California Statute-to-Bill Numbers (1900-2020)Witkin State Law Library relational database that quickly associates bill numbers with Chapter Laws.
Annotations: Case Law, AG Opinions & more
With no sources of compiled California legislative history, use an annotated code to check for case law, attorney general opinions, and secondary sources that review the legislative history. While not as tidy as compiled legislative histories, if a court has already examined the legislative history, it may be binding or persuasive authority. An Attorney General Opinion that is cited by a court may also be persuasive. A journal article or California Jurisprudence could provide a road map to guide your own research. Since 1970, the University of the Pacific Law Review (formerly McGeorge Law Review) devotes one issue a year to a Review of Selected California Legislation, known as "Greensheets."
California Legislative Materials
Locating California Legislative Materials
- Witkin State Law LibraryLocated in the Capitol, the state law library has an extensive collection of primary sources dating to the beginning of California’s statehood. The Library's expertise in legislative history is shared in Guides and Publications. Try the quick conversion tool California Statute-to-Bill Numbers (1900-2020).
California Legislative History: Basic Online Research sorts the most useful online locations and helps manage expectations for locating legislative intent materials. CA Legislative Publications Collection Links to HathiTrust & Google Books is a comprehensive spreadsheet with links to some digitized copies of older materials previously available only in print. - California Legislative InformationLegislative history materials since 2000.
- Statutes and Amendments (LegInfo 1993-2016)
Archived website of California legislative branch. Full text of bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments, and their status, history, votes, analyses, and veto messages are available from 1993 through 2016. - California State Assembly PublicationsOffice of the Clerk: State Assembly Daily Journals and Histories.
- California State Senate PublicationsState Senate Daily Journals and Histories.
- California Legislative Bills (1867-2004) [microform]Located at the San Diego (County) Law Library on microfilm and microfiche.
- State ArchivesA division of the California Secretary of State, the largest and richest collection of older Legislative Resources is held at the State Archives. The Legislative Records Program (LegPro) works closely with the State Legislature to identify and preserve records and materials of enduring value to document California’s legislative history. Records include Bill Files from 1960, Hearing Files from 1940 and select Author/Sponsor Files from 1950.
Under "Research Services" on the website, if a researcher can specify a particular chapter or bill (for a total of up to six), Archives staff will identify and photocopy materials in the collection relating to the bill(s) at a reasonable per page cost. Search the catalog or examine the Legislative Resources page to locate records before contacting Reference Services to request access. Information current as of March 10, 2022. - Online Archives of CaliforniaContains finding aids from many repositories, large and small, across California. It is keyword searchable and has the added advantage of being cross-repository searchable. Findings aids will help locate repositories holding some legislators' papers, and legislative committee papers.
Recommended texts
Henke's California Law Guide by Publication Date: 2006Check the Table of Contents, and read the parts on Legislative History.
Legal Research in California by Publication Date: 2011Check the Table of Contents, and read the parts on Legislative History.
- Research & Practice Guide: California Legislative History & Intent, 6th Ed. (2005)
Carolina Rose, an expert on California legislative history research, makes this comprehensive guide to legislative history freely available online.
Newspapers
Contemporary newspaper articles on bills as they become laws can help provide context and an understanding of likely legislative intent. Access to the Los Angeles Times index (no full text) as early as 1982 is available through Gale Academic OneFile, as well as the the newspaper website. If you find relevant articles, contact the library for full text access. The San Diego Public Library provides access to three recent years of those newspapers, and to full text Los Angeles Times articles (to the 1980s) through Gale's Newsstand; it may also have back issues on microfilm. If you are in San Diego you may create a patron account for access to those articles along with access to the San Diego Public Library's other electronic resources.