question: What happens to a law when it's passed?
comment: Not knowing a law has been passed is not considered a grey area. You are expected to know the laws on a basic level. Generally there is a date set when it will come into effect. For instance I was just reading about MI marijuana laws and they voted it in last year and it came into effect in February of this year. And yes there will be a physical copy somewhere, but not where the public uses it. Nowadays there is a digital copy online of every legal decision made.
passages: If the governor fails to return a bill to the legislative house in which it originated within a specified number of days after it was presented to him or her, it becomes a law without their signature.
   When a bill is not modified in the second house, that house can send it to the governor on Third Reading, through enrollment. If the bill is modified, the house of origin must vote to accept or reject amendments by the opposite house. A Fourth Reading, in the case of acceptance, will send the bill to the governor, through enrollment. If amendments are rejected, the bill can be sent to conference, where members of the Senate and House hash out a final version and send it to a Fourth Reading in both houses.
   Bills passed by the legislature usually require the approval of the executive such as the monarch, president, or governor to become law. Exceptions are the Irish Free State from the abolition of the Governor-General in December 1936 to the creation of the office of President in December 1937, and Israel from its formation until today, during which period bills approved by the Oireachtas and Knesset respectively became/become law immediately (Though, in Israel's case, the laws are ceremonially signed after their passage by the President).
   Acts of the 88th Minnesota Legislature
  
  The acts of the 88th Minnesota Legislature includes all acts by the 88th Minnesota Legislature, which lasts from January 8, 2013 to January 5, 2015.
  
  Bills are enacted after being passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. However, if the governor vetoes a bill or line-item vetoes items that appropriate money in a bill, the bill or items can still be enacted by a two-thirds vote in both houses, unless the Legislature by adjournment prevents the bill's return.
  
  Section::::Summary of actions.
   Acts of Congress are given the force of law, in one of the following ways: signed by the President of the United States; neither signed nor vetoed by the President within ten days from reception (excluding Sundays) while the Congress is in session; or, when both the Senate and the House of Representatives vote, by a two-thirds majority in each chamber, to override a presidential veto during its session. In United States administrative law, a federal regulation may be said to be formally promulgated when it appears in the "Federal Register" and after the public-comment period concludes.
   After the president signs a bill into law (or Congress enacts it over his veto), it is delivered to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) where it is assigned a law number, and prepared for publication as a slip law. Public laws, but not private laws, are also given legal statutory citation by the OFR. At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into bound volumes called the United States Statutes at Large, and they are known as session laws. The Statutes at Large present a chronological arrangement of the laws in the exact order that they have been enacted.
   If the governor fails to return a bill to the legislative house in which it originated within six days after it was presented to him or her (including Sundays), it becomes a law without their signature. This return can be prevented by recession of the Legislature. In that case the bill must be returned within two days after the legislature reassembles, or it becomes a law without the governor's signature.
   Alternatively, instead of presenting the measure to the Governor, the Legislature may order that it be submitted to the people. If the measure is approved by the people, the Governor has no power to veto it, and the Legislature may not repeal it, and may not amend it unless the amending legislation furthers the purposes of such measure and at least three-fourths of the members of each house of the Legislature, by a roll call of ayes and nays, vote to amend such measure.
  
  Section::::Membership.
  
  Section::::Membership.:Districting.
   When a bill is not modified in the second house, it can be sent to the governor on Third Reading, through enrollment. If the bill is modified, the house of origin must vote to accept or reject amendments by the opposite house. A Fourth Reading, in the case of acceptance, will send the bill to the governor, through enrollment. If amendments are rejected, the bill can be sent to conference, where members of the Senate and House hash out a final version and send it to a Fourth Reading in both houses.
  
  Section::::Powers and process.:Governor and veto override.
   Normally, in a democracy, an ordinary law must first obtain a simple majority of a congress, parliament, or other legislature, and then be signed into law by the representative of executive power. The process leading to a legislative vote may vary vastly from one jurisdiction to another: the process may be initiated by either house of a bicameral legislature or from the sole house of a unicameral legislature; from the head of government or head of state; or by popular initiative. Different jurisdictions may allow ordinary laws to be proposed by one or all of these means, and may have restrictions on which body may take the initiative for certain types of laws (for example, in some bicameral systems, tax-related laws must begin in the lower chamber of the legislature). In some jurisdictions, the legislature has a means to override an executive veto by a supermajority, or the voting populace have the means to override a law by a referendum.
   The adopted laws are submitted to the President. The President can return the law to the Seimas for additional consideration or sign it. Seimas can, but is not obliged to, take proposals by the President into account and can approve the laws returned by the President in a simple majority vote. If the President does not sign the law returned after additional consideration or neither signs nor returns the law after the initial submission, the Speaker of the Seimas can sign the law. The law comes into effect after being published in the "Official Gazette" ("Valstybės žinios").
  
  Section::::Parliamentary operations.:Plenary sittings.
   BULLET::::- Governor's action. Within 30 days after receiving a bill, the governor may sign it into law, allow it to become law without his/her signature, or veto it.
  
  BULLET::::- Overrides. A vetoed bill is returned to the house of origin, where a vote may be taken to override the governor's veto; a two-thirds vote of both houses is required to override a veto. (There has been no override in the California Legislature since 1979.)
   Once a bill reaches the governor, he or she may sign it, which completes its enactment into law. From this point, the bill becomes an act, and remains the law of the state unless repealed by legislative action or overturned by a court decision. If the governor does not approve of the bill, he or she may veto it. In the event of a veto, the governor returns the bill to the house in which it originated with a message explaining his or her objections and suggesting any amendments (if applicable) which might remove those objections. The bill is then reconsidered, and if a simple majority of the members of both houses agrees to the proposed executive amendments, it is returned to the governor, as he or she revised it, for his or her signature.
   Nevada is the only state to allow for statute affirmation. The statute affirmation allows the voters to collect signatures to place on ballot a question asking the state citizens to affirm a standing state law. If a majority of state citizens vote to affirm the law, the state legislature will be barred from ever amending the law, and it can be amended or repealed only if approved by a majority of state citizens in a direct vote.
  
  Section::::Objections to the system.
   If the Governor fails to return a bill to the legislative house in which it originated within six days after it was presented to him or her (not including Sundays), it becomes a law without their signature. This return can be prevented by recession of the Legislature. In that case the bill must be returned within two days after the legislature reassembles, or it becomes a law without the Governor's signature.
   In the United States, when a bill is passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president, or Congress overrides a presidential veto, the various provisions contained within the newly enacted law are rearranged according to their policy content and cataloged in the United States Code—a compilation of the general and permanent federal laws of the United States. To repeal any element of an enacted law, Congress must pass a new law containing repeal language and the codified statute's location in the U.S. Code (including the title, chapter, part, section, paragraph and clause). In this way, Congress (and the president) must follow the same rules and procedures for passing any law. When statutes are repealed, their text is simply deleted from the Code and replaced by a note summarizing what used to be there. Once deleted, the repealed statute no longer has the force of law. All repeals of parts of the US Code are, therefore, express repeals.
   A country's law could determine that on being passed by lawmakers a bill becomes an act without further ado. However, more usually, the process whereby a bill becomes an Act is well prescribed in general constitutional or administrative legislation. This process varies from country to country, and from political system to political system.
   Promulgation in the sense of publishing and proclaiming the law is accomplished by the President, or the relevant presiding officer in the case of an overridden veto, delivering the act to the Archivist of the United States. After the Archivist receives the Act, he or she provides for its publication as a slip law and in the United States Statutes at Large. Thereafter, the changes are published in the United States Code.
   BULLET::::- Nebraska Legislature: "Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska"
  
  BULLET::::- Nevada Legislature: "The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows"
  
  BULLET::::- For acts passed by popular initiative, "The People of the State of Nevada do enact as follows"
  
  BULLET::::- New Hampshire General Court: "Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:"
  
  BULLET::::- New Jersey Legislature: "Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:"
   Some bills may require approval by referendum. In Ireland this is obligatory for bills to amend the constitution; it is possible for other bills via a process that has never been used.
  
  Section::::Enactment and after.:Afterwards.
  
  A bill may come into force as soon as it becomes law, or it may specify a later date to come into force, or it may specify by whom and how it may be brought into force; for example, by ministerial order. Different parts of an act may come into force at different times.
   Usually, the individual sections of a statute are incorporated into the Code exactly as enacted; however, sometimes editorial changes are made by the LRC (for instance, the phrase "the date of enactment of this Act" is replaced by the actual date). Though authorized by statute, these changes do not constitute positive law.
  
  Section::::Codification.:Legal status.
   Sometimes courts refuse to apply legislative intent that conflicts with the text of the law, as in the case of the Virginia General Assembly accidentally repealing the exemptions of almost all industries from the statute requiring employers to allow employees not to work on Sabbath. It was necessary for the legislature to re-assemble for a special session to correct the error.
   After final passage in either the Alaska House of Representatives or Alaska Senate, a bill is engrossed and sent to the opposite house to go through the same process of introduction, committee referral, and three readings.
  
  Section::::Legislative process.:Enactment.
   Section::::Enactment and after.
  
  Where a piece of primary legislation is termed an act, the process of a bill becoming law may be termed enactment. Once a bill is passed by the legislature, it may automatically become law, or it may need further approval, in which case enactment may be effected by the approver's signature or proclamation.
  
  Section::::Enactment and after.:Approval.
   An Act of Congress that violates the Constitution may be declared unconstitutional by the courts. The judicial declaration of an Act's unconstitutionality does not remove the law from the statute books; rather, it prevents the law from being enforced. However, future publications of the Act are generally annotated with warnings indicating that the statute is no longer valid law.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Legislation
  
  BULLET::::- List of United States federal legislation for a list of prominent acts of Congress.
  
  BULLET::::- Procedures of the United States Congress
  
  BULLET::::- Act of Parliament
  
  BULLET::::- Coming into force
  
  BULLET::::- Enactment
  
  BULLET::::- "Federal Register"
  
  Section::::External links.
  