Methodology
This tracker describes what bills do. It does not say whether that is good or bad. Every direction label is measured against a fixed, published axis for its topic, and comes with a quote from the bill.
Reading a direction label
- Firearms
- Measured against the ability to buy, own, carry or make firearms and accessories.
· Restricts gun access - Transgender
- Measured against legal recognition of, and access to services and facilities for, transgender people.
· Restricts transgender recognition & access - Abortion
- Measured against legal access to abortion.
· Restricts abortion access - Immigration enforcement
- Measured against the scope of immigration enforcement by state or local government.
· Restricts immigration enforcement - Custody & support
- Measured against the rights of the parent who pays support or has less custody, against the obligations placed on that parent.
· Restricts rights of the paying or noncustodial parent
Mixed (↔) means the bill clearly moves the measure both ways. No change (=) covers studies, reporting and technical bills. Arrows and colours show only the direction along the measure, never a side or a party.
Sources
- Bill status, history, sponsors, votes and calendars: LegiScan (CC BY 4.0), checked daily; new filings usually appear within a day.
- Bill text: the official legislature sites (Texas, Florida, California) and GovInfo for federal bills, or LegiScan's copy of the official text.
How bills are labelled
- A keyword filter picks candidate bills from every bill filed (tuned to miss as little as possible).
- An AI model (xAI Grok, pinned version) reads the relevant parts of the latest bill text and returns topics, direction and a supporting quote.
- Software checks that every quote appears word for word in the bill. Labels whose quote fails are flagged.
- Labels checked by a person are marked “✓ Reviewed”, and still show what the model first said.
Topics and direction axes
Firearms
Laws on buying, selling, owning, carrying, storing, making or using firearms, ammunition, magazines and accessories; background checks; age limits; extreme-risk (red-flag) orders; firearm liability of manufacturers or dealers; state preemption of local gun rules; 'Second Amendment sanctuary' measures. Not: general violent-crime penalties that merely mention a deadly weapon, hunting seasons or wildlife rules, unless they change firearm access.
Direction axis: the ability to buy, own, carry or make firearms and accessories. “Expands” moves this up, “Restricts” moves it down.
Subtopics: purchase-background-checks, carry, weapon-accessory-restrictions, red-flag-erpo, storage-minors, preemption-sanctuary, industry-liability, other
Transgender
Laws specific to transgender or gender-nonconforming people or to gender identity: gender-transition medical care, sex-designated sports teams, bathrooms and facilities, sex markers on IDs and records, school policies on pronouns or gender identity, definitions of 'sex' in statute, drag performance restrictions. Not: general anti-discrimination or health bills with no gender-identity provision.
Direction axis: legal recognition of, and access to services and facilities for, transgender people. “Expands” moves this up, “Restricts” moves it down.
Subtopics: healthcare, sports, id-documents, bathrooms, education, other
Abortion
Laws on abortion and closely linked issues: gestational limits and bans, exceptions, medication abortion, interstate travel and shield protections, clinic and provider regulation, public funding or insurance coverage, fetal personhood and its effect on IVF, ballot measures and constitutional amendments on abortion. Not: general maternal or prenatal health, contraception-only bills (unless they define abortion), or IVF bills with no personhood or abortion provision.
Direction axis: legal access to abortion. “Expands” moves this up, “Restricts” moves it down.
Subtopics: bans-gestational-limits, exceptions, medication-abortion, travel-interstate-shield, provider-clinic-regulation, funding-insurance, personhood-ivf, ballot-constitutional, other
Immigration enforcement
Laws on enforcing immigration law by state or local government: cooperation with federal immigration authorities (detainers, 287(g)), sanctuary policies and their bans, state crimes for illegal entry or presence, border security operations, employer verification (E-Verify), detention and transport of migrants, human smuggling tied to immigration. Not: benefits or eligibility for immigrants, worker visas, foreign land-ownership rules, or economic development with no enforcement provision.
Direction axis: the scope of immigration enforcement by state or local government. “Expands” moves this up, “Restricts” moves it down.
Subtopics: state-federal-cooperation, sanctuary-policies, state-immigration-crimes-border, employment-e-verify, detention-transport, other
Custody & support
Laws on child custody and parenting time, child support, paternity and spousal support (alimony): custody standards and presumptions (including joint or equal shared parenting), parenting-time enforcement and relocation, how child support is calculated, when it starts and ends (including retroactive support and support from conception), enforcement and penalties for unpaid support, establishing or disestablishing paternity (including genetic testing and paternity fraud), alimony amount, duration and termination, domestic-violence or abuse findings that change custody or parenting time, and custody or visitation claims by grandparents, other relatives, nonparents or additional legal parents. Not: child-welfare cases brought by the state (child-protective investigations, foster care, removals, reunification, state-filed termination of parental rights, and procedures, reports or lawyers in those cases); adoption; visitation of prison inmates; police, jail or interrogation rules; divorce grounds, waiting periods, property division and records that do not change custody, child support or alimony; tax credits; protective orders or criminal domestic-violence penalties that do not change custody or parenting time; marriage rules; guardianship of adults; inheritance; or administration of the child-support agency with no change for parents.
Direction axis: the rights of the parent who pays support or has less custody, against the obligations placed on that parent. “Expands” moves this up, “Restricts” moves it down.
Subtopics: custody-parenting-time, child-support, paternity, support-enforcement, alimony, domestic-violence-custody, other
Limits
- A bill can change with each amendment; labels apply to the text version named on the bill page.
- “Mixed” means the bill clearly moves the axis both ways. “No change” covers studies, reporting and technical bills.
- Party is the sponsor's party as recorded by LegiScan.