Articles Tagged with Oregon Revised Statutes

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A patron recently asked what something meant. They were pointing at a series of numbers and abbreviations at the end of a statute. It looked like this “[1957 c.448 §1; 1981 c.88 §2; 1983 c.330 §1; 1993 c.741 §110; 1993 c.796 §1; 2001 c.403 §1]” (ORS 776.015). I told them that is the history of the law.

When the legislature passes a law, it starts as a bill. That bill has a number, like HB 2001 or SB 101. That tells us if it’s a House Bill (HB) or Senate Bill (SB). Those bills that are approved by both houses and signed by the Governor become a session law. Those session laws are compiled after each legislative session. Those compilations are titled Oregon Laws.

The Oregon Revised Statutes are a compilation of all the session laws passed by the legislature that are currently in effect. To make it easier to find a law, they are organized by subject. But each statute has a list of the session laws that have impacted it, in brackets. That is the text our patron was asking about.

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Read on for a bit of Oregon “Civics Education” from me:

Senate Bill 513 A (2021) requires that Oregon high school students receive one half-credit in civics education prior to graduation. It has been approved by both legislative chambers and will (we assume) be signed by the Governor. (Visit the Governor’s homepage, look under the Administration tab, and click on the Bills Signed link for a list.)

How this law will be implemented will be fun, um, interesting to watch. It appears everyone is fairly realistic about the speed of this process. The bill says: “Applies to high school diplomas awarded on or after January 1, 2026.”

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The 2015 ORS are now online

View the online, almost official (i.e. prima facie evidence of the law), 2015 Oregon Revised Statutes at the Oregon Legislature’s website.

Note that any new laws passed in the 2016 and 2017 Oregon legislative sessions WILL NOT appear in codified format until the 2017 Oregon Revised Statutes are published in late 2017 or early 2018.

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The short session Oregon Legislative 2016 bills are now online.

As of this moment, however, the 2015 Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) are still NOT online, but if you’re very lucky you may click on that link one day, even one moment from now, and find yourself reading the 2015 ORS, which we hope to see shortly. (Call your legislator to ask where they (the ORS) are!)

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The online 2015 ORS will appear shortly, at least we hope before the official start of the 2016 Legislative Session.

The official PRINT ORS is available at law and public libraries around Oregon. (But call first to make sure your library has it in print. Not all libraries get the official print version.)

Note that any legislation passed in the 2016 and 2017 Oregon legislative sessions WILL NOT appear in codified format until the 2017 Oregon Revised Statutes are published in late 2017 or early 2018.

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Legislative Counsel have created an ORS Archives website where they will be posting the 1953-1997 ORS.  Currently the 1953-1957 statutes have been posted to the website:

Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS): 1953-1997 Archives

Remaining statutes will be posted as time allows and the Constitutions, Indexes, Prefaces, etc. will be added after all of the statutes have all been posted.

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The superseded ORSs are starting to reappear at the Legislature’s website:

a) 1999-2011 ORS

b) A backup source: Internet Archive resource (work in progress from the Oregon State Library): Historic Oregon Statutes

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If you’ve ever come across one of these “see Preface” notes in the ORS, you might be wondering where you can find that Preface:

Example: “192.715 to 192.760 were enacted into law by the Legislative Assembly but were not added to or made a part of ORS chapter 192 or any series therin by legislative action. See Preface to Oregon Revised Statutes for further explanation.

In the print, this is easy. You just open up Volume 1 and start reading.

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Ask and ye shall find.  From Legislative Counsel:

We plan to have the 2013 ORS posted on the legislative website by the end of January.

Our official print 2013 ORS  arrived on December 31, 2013.

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