Nevada Legislative History

This guide helps you learn why new or changed laws were made, but not where the laws first came from. When learning why a law was made, you think about what lawmakers were thinking and what problems they wanted to fix. Keep in mind, courts don’t always have to use this information, but it can help. To study old laws, you can look at meeting notes and journals, but notes are only available from 1965 onward and should always be considered persuasive, not binding. 

Researching legislative history helps uncover the intent behind a law. It answers questions like:

• What were lawmakers thinking when they created or changed the law?
• What problem was the law trying to solve?
• Are today's cultural values or contemporary issues different than when these laws were passed? 

This is especially important when the law’s language is unclear or open to interpretation.

The purpose of this guide is to provide instructions on researching legislative intent for new or amended statutes. It is NOT intended to help you figure out where a statute came from (i.e., the statute's origin). 

Before diving in, here are some key points to understand:

What Are You Researching?

Primarily, Committee Minutes.

• When a bill is introduced, it’s assigned to one or more committees that hold hearings to discuss it.
• Minutes from these hearings provide insight into lawmakers’ thoughts, concerns, and deliberations on the proposed legislation.

What Does a Compiled Legislative History Include?

1. Bill History – A record of the bill’s progression through the legislative process.
2. Committee Minutes – Detailed records of committee hearings.
3. Exhibits – Supplemental documents submitted during hearings and referenced in testimony.

Pre-1965 Statutes

If you’re researching a statute’s history from before 1965, committee minutes won’t be available. Committees were not required to keep minutes until after 1965.

Senate and Assembly Journals

• What They Are: Daily records of activities on the floors of each legislative house.
• How to Use Them: While they document what happened, they don’t provide detailed discussions of specific issues, making them a secondary tool for legislative history research.
• Online Access: Journals are available online for both the Assembly and Senate starting from 1997.