The practice of law is constantly changing. New law refers to legislation that is newly passed or debated. This may be legislation that is designed to check the Supreme Court’s judicial review power or it may be new legislation that is intended to create a more favorable environment for business.
How Our Laws Are Made
The legislative process begins with a policy idea. Those ideas can come from senators themselves or they can be the result of a constituent request or an issue that is a priority for an organization. Once those ideas are settled on, they must be drafted as a bill and submitted to the Senate for consideration.
Once the bill is drafted, it is assigned to a committee. The staff for the committee write a committee report that sets forth the purpose and scope of the bill as well as the reasons why the committee recommends approval. In addition, if the bill amends existing laws, those amendments must be set out in a section-by-section analysis and the text of any laws that are being repealed must be set out.
Once the bill is passed by both houses of Congress, it goes to the Governor for consideration. He has 10 days (not counting Sundays) to sign the bill into law or veto it. The Governor’s veto can be overridden by two-thirds of the members of each house.