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Legislative Intent Service, Inc. News & Notes

Some bill research does not include the Governor's file because at the time we researched the bill, the sitting Governor had not released his chaptered bill file. If the Governor's file is not included with this particular research, please contact our office (1-530-666-1917 or quote@legintent.com) and we will be happy to provide this file at no charge if it is available. Please Note: Governor files did not exist prior to 1943.

LEGISLATIVE INTENT SERVICE, INC.

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(800) 666‑1917 • www.legintent.com 

 LIS NEWS AND NOTES

 Legislative Intent and U.S. Supreme Court Decision:  Among the controversial opinions published last week by the Supreme Court, we found that the Court’s opinion in the case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl , 570 U.S. ____ (2013), referred to legislative history materials.  A baby girl classified as a native American Indian because of her biological father’s Cherokee heritage was removed from her adopted family when the baby girl was a few months old because her father, who had attempted to relinquish his parental rights and had no prior contact with the child, asserted his parental right under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), 25 USC § § 1901 through 1963.  The ICWA was enacted in the mid-1970’s to stem abusive child welfare practices that resulted in the separation of large numbers of Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement in non-Indian homes. 

The Court ruled against the biological father’s claim that the ICWA had been violated when the baby girl was adopted by the non-Indian couple.  In reviewing legislative intent, Justice Alito, writing for the majority, stated:

             Our reading of §1912(f) comports with the statutory text demonstrating that the primary mischief the ICWA was designed to counteract was the unwarranted removal of Indian children from Indian families due to the cultural insensitivity and biases of social workers and state courts.  The statutory text expressly highlights the primary problem that the statute was intended to solve:  “an alarmingly high percentage of Indian families [were being] broken up by the removal, often unwarranted, of their children from them by nontribal public and private agencies.” [citations omitted]  And if the legislative history of the ICWA is thought to be relevant, it further underscores that the Act was primarily intended to stem the unwarranted removal of Indian children from intact Indian families.  See, e.g., H. R. Rep. No. 95-1386, p. 8 (1978) (explaining that, as relevant here, “[t]he purpose of [the ICWA] is to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families by establishing minimum Federal standards for the removal of Indian children from their families and the placement of such children in foster or adoptive homes” (emphasis added)); id., at 9 (decrying the “wholesale separation of Indian children” from their Indian families); id., at 22 (discussing “the removal” of Indian children from their parents pursuant to §§ 1912(e) and (f)).  In sum, when, as here, the adoption of an Indian child is voluntarily and lawfully initiated by a non-Indian parent with sole custodial rights, the ICWA’s primary goal of preventing the unwarranted removal of Indian children and the dissolution of Indian families is not implicated.  (See Court Opinion, pages 9 and 10 )

 The above-noted House Report document is among the many types of legislative history materials we collect for federal legislative intent research.  Visit our website to learn more about LIS’ federal legislative history research.

 

Types of State Legislative History Documents Available:  LIS is able to search for and provide documents relating to legislative history for state legislation going back to the 18^th Century.  For example, we can locate legislative bills for California as early as the state’s first legislative session in 1850, which are typically handwritten.  It is between the times that the bill is introduced and when it is chaptered into law that many different types of materials are produced by the legislature which LIS searches for and gathers. Thus, the different eras for any state legislature require different research protocols for substantive legislative history research.

 Today, the Legislative process will generate specific materials, such as analyses or minutes by the committees and offices for both Chambers for such states as California, Nevada, Oregon, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas, just to name a few.  You can view samples of our different states’ legislative history research here.  In California, for example, the policy committee can hear testimony in support of or opposition to the bill, amend and pass the bill or defeat it, so once the bill is set for hearing, background information and materials are collected from the author, the sponsor, proponents and opponents.  Where funding or monies are involved, the bill will be heard in the fiscal committee, which generates its own analyses and file on the bill in question.  You should keep in mind to ask whether the Assembly and the Senate policy committees and, if applicable, the fiscal committees, may have retained legislative bill files on that committee’s review, amendment, passage or defeat of your specific bill in question.  We are able to access these legislative bill files either directly from the committee or from its archival location at the State Capitol.

            Very importantly, for all sessions since any state’s earliest legislative sessions, LIS searches for the legislative history materials of failed related bills from the same or prior legislative sessions – the surviving legislative history materials for these failed bills shed significant insight regarding the development of the final, successful enactment. 

 In addition to the accessibility of policy and fiscal committee legislative bill files, there may be individual legislative files retained by the author of the bill which may be available. In California, the chaptered bill file for each governor since 1943 is also available, but not for the sitting governor.

 Prior to California’s open records statutes enacted in the 1970’s, the types of materials relating to legislation and legislative intent included all of the versions of the bill, final history and excerpts published in the Assembly and Senate Journals, publications by the Legislative Counsel’s Office on the bill, surviving sponsor materials (i.e., the California State Bar, labor groups, teachers’ organizations, insurance commissioner, and state agencies, just to name a few), and governor’s chaptered bill files.  Also prior to the 1970’s in California, we look for task force reports, state agency reports, committee hearings transcripts, code commission drafts, published studies, and biographical materials relating to the legislator carrying the bill.

 The answer to the question of whether there may be surviving legislative history for any bill of interest to you is “yes!”  LIS provides the legislative histories for all 50 states and federal legislation.  Call toll-free 1-800-666-1917 or send LIS an email for a free quote or to speak with an attorney regarding your legislative history research questions.

 

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