In law, the legislative intent of the

legislature A legislature is an deliberative assembly, assembly with the authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country or city. They are often contrasted with the Executive (government), executive and Judiciary, ...

in enacting

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

may sometimes be considered by the

judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

to interpret the law (see

judicial interpretation Judicial interpretation is the way in which the judiciary construes the law, particularly constitutional documents, legislation and frequently used vocabulary. This is an important issue in some common law jurisdictions such as the Unite ...

). The judiciary may attempt to assess legislative intent where legislation is ambiguous or does not appear to directly, adequately address a particular issue, or appears to have been a legislative drafting error. The courts have repeatedly held that when a statute is clear and unambiguous, the inquiry into legislative intent ends at that point. It is only when a statute could be interpreted in more than one fashion that legislative intent must be inferred from sources other than the actual text of the statute.

Sources

Courts frequently look at the following sources in attempting to determine the goals and purposes that the legislative body had in mind when it passed the law: * the text of the bill as proposed to the legislative body * amendments to the bill that were proposed and accepted or rejected * the record of hearings on the topic * legislative records or journals * speeches and floor debate made prior to the vote on the bill * legislative subcommittee minutes, factual findings, and reports * other relevant statutes that can be used to understand the definitions in the statute in question * other relevant statutes which indicate the limits of the statute in question * legislative files of the executive branch, such as the governor or president *

case law Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a ...

prior to the statute or following it that demonstrates the problems the legislature atte