To understand state regulatory powers and procedures, you may find it helpful to review Administrative Law and Practice, a treatise that covers state agencies and regulations on the subjects of administrative procedures, rule-making, adjudication, oversight, litigation over specific types of issues, judicial review and more. Other treatises on administrative law can be found on our Administrative Law Treatises page.
Learning the regulatory and decision-making processes for your jurisdiction(s) may also be useful.
If seeking to understand more about the executive branch of a state, the Book of States, published by The Council of State Governments, provides an annual summary of each state's executive branch including qualifications for office, and powers, duties, responsibilities and functions, provisions.
State regulations, proposed regulations, and the ability to track regulations may be provided by Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg Law (see links below).
The most recent versions of the administrative codes may also be found on a state government's website, usually on the Secretary of the State's webpage.
The library's state resources guides provide direct links to regulation content on the legal databases and state websites. The guides also lists the title of the print administrative codes (if still published).
Some state agencies' decisions may be found on Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg Law (below). Administrative decisions may also be available on the state regulatory agency's website.
State registers and regulation tracking are offered by Lexis, found in its Administrative Codes & Regulations with coverage varying by state. Please note that for some states, Lexis no longer updates the register and offers administrative agency rulemaking activity such as proposal, notice and comment, hearing, emergency and permanent promulgation, and withdrawal only through its Regulation Tracking service. Coverage of the service is generally from 1990 to current.
In Westlaw, search historical regulations (coverage varies per state), proposed & adopted regulations - current (covers 2 most recent years & currently proposed and newly adopted regulations), proposed and adopted regulations - all (to search the state's entire register with coverage starting from 2006) and regulation tracking. All links can be found on the state's Regulations page.
In Bloomberg Law, proposed, final, emergency, temporary, and interim rules, plus regulatory notices can be found under Rulemaking within the State Laws & Regulation collection.
The American Association of Law Libraries' Online Legal Information Resources notes the official status of each state's primary law publications found on government websites, including regulations.
Typically, the most current governor's executive orders may be found on the state government's website, usually on the governor's webpage. Some do include past orders. Historical orders may also be provided on the state archive's website. The library's state resources guides provide direct links to sources. You may also be able to find executive orders in Westlaw's State Executive Orders database (coverage from 2008).
Though more recent state attorney general opinions are typically found on the state's government website, specifically the attorney general's webpage, current and historical opinions may be found digitized on HeinOnline State Attorney General Reports and Opinions and LLMC Digital by State then Agencies (alpha order).