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I Have a Minnesota Statute Number

Display the statute: Search Statutes on Minnesota Legislative Website.

At the end of each statute is a "History" note. The citations in that note refer to the Laws of Minnesota (also known as Session Laws). Those are the laws that created and/or amended that specific statute. Each citation includes the year of the law, the law chapter number (c), the section number (s), and sometimes an article number (art). New language is underlined and deleted language is crossed out.

Screenshot showing the "history" links at the bottom of a statute

Click on the history note citations and look through the laws until you find the law that contains the language you are researching.

After you have identified the correct session law, look at the chapter number at the very beginning of the session law. Right after the chapter number is either a House file (HF) or Senate file (SF) number.

Screenshot showing that the bill number is next to the chapter number in a session law

Tip! If there are extensive history notes with many law citations - and you don't want to look at every one - a search of the archives of the Laws of Minnesota may help. Copy a distinct phrase from the statute section you are researching and do a phrase search of the session law archive. This will display all the laws that have that phrase in them. (Be careful- that phrase may also be in other unrelated statutes or laws.) The earliest law on the list may be when that language was first added. Be aware that even the slightest change in wording will affect the search. For a comprehensive legislative history, it's best to check the laws in the history notes.

Tip! It is possible that the language you are researching, or similar language, may have existed previously in a different section of Minnesota Statutes. Don't assume that the first session law listed in the history notes is the first time that language appeared in the statutes. The legislature sometimes moves language from one section of statutes to another or renumbers existing statutes (recodification).


Next: Find the Bill's Legislative History

See also Minnesota Legislative History - Location of Materials