Arizona Legislative History: Step-By-Step

Step 1: Look Up the Code Section

• Find the latest version of the code section to be researched on the Arizona Legislature website's statute section.

Step 2: Find the Session Law Passed by the Arizona Legislature

• Use the Session Law tool of the Arizona Legislature website.
• The default setting for the page is to the current legislative session.
• To change sessions, click the drop down menu in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Step 3: Locate All Versions of the Bill

• Review all versions of your bill. This includes the bills from both the House and the Senate.
• The bills can be located on the Arizona Legislature website.
• Select the desired session using the drop down menu at the top of the page, then clicking the "Bills" tab of the main menu.
• You can search for bills using keywords or bill numbers.
• Once you have located your bill, select "Documents" on the right hand side of the page. Among the listed documents will be all versions of the bill.

Step 4: Other Bill Information

• You can view bills by which committee reviewed and voted on them, by using the Committee Bill Search.
• To see if the Legislature appointed an Interim, Special, or Study committee on the subject of the legislation, check the list of Interim Committees on the website of the Arizona State Legislature.  
• Much of the investigative work of the legislature goes on in these temporary groups and they sometimes issue reports and recommendations to the Legislature generally, or to specific committees.

Criminal Statutes from Title 13

• Hon. Rudolph Gerber provides useful legislative information in his book Criminal Law of Arizona (2d ed.) (KFA 2961 G47))

Locate articles in law reviews, periodicals and newspapers

• Consult the Commentaries notes following the statute in the Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated, or on Westlaw or Lexis (access limited to law students and faculty), or on Nexis Uni (available on campus to public patrons) for cites to helpful sources.
• Articles in the Tucson Citizen, Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Republic, Arizona Business Gazette, and Phoenix Gazette can be accessed in newspaper files of Westlaw, Lexis, and Nexis Uni (coverage varies).

Search Arizona cases on Westlaw, Lexis, or Nexis Uni

• Run a search in an Arizona cases database to see if a judge has referred to the law’s legislative history in an opinion. This may or may not turn up additional information but it is a good idea in order to conduct a thorough search.