The Nebraska Revised Statutes are the official, continuously updated collection of every general law in force in Nebraska, organized into 90 numbered chapters by subject and maintained by the Office of the Revisor of Statutes within the Legislative Council.1Nebraska Legislature. Browse Statutes by Chapter You can read the full code free on the Legislature’s website, and once you know how citations work, finding a specific law takes seconds.
How the Code Is Organized
The statutes use a three-level structure: Chapters, Articles, and Sections. Chapters are the broadest grouping, each covering a major subject area. Articles divide a chapter into narrower sub-topics. Sections hold the actual text of individual laws, and the section number is what you will see in almost every citation.
The Revisor of Statutes handles numbering, places new laws into the existing framework, incorporates amendments as sessions end, corrects typographical errors, and removes language the Nebraska Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional.2Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 49-705 – Revisor of Statutes; Supplements and Reissued or Replacement Volumes; Powers When a volume is reissued, the Revisor also adds annotations summarizing Nebraska Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and federal court decisions that have interpreted each section.3Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 49-765 – Revisor of Statutes; Reissuance of Volumes; Duties Those annotations do not change the law, but they tell you how courts have read it.
Reading a Statute Citation
A Nebraska citation is a short string of numbers separated by a hyphen. In “28-105,” the first number is the chapter and the second is the section inside that chapter. So 28-105 points you to section 105 of Chapter 28 (Crimes and Punishments), which sets out the felony sentencing classifications.4Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 28-105 – Felonies; Classification of Penalties
Some citations add a third number for a subsection within a longer section. Older materials occasionally reference the Article level, but the chapter-and-section format is what appears in court filings, briefs, and official government documents today.
Chapters You Are Most Likely to Need
Knowing which chapter covers your topic cuts your search in half. Among the most frequently consulted:1Nebraska Legislature. Browse Statutes by Chapter
- Chapter 20 — Civil Rights
- Chapter 25 — Courts and Civil Procedure, including statutes of limitations
- Chapter 28 — Crimes and Punishments
- Chapter 29 — Criminal Procedure
- Chapter 30 — Decedents’ Estates and Protection of Persons and Property
- Chapter 42 — Households and Families, covering divorce and custody
- Chapter 44 — Insurance
- Chapter 48 — Labor
- Chapter 60 — Motor Vehicles
- Chapter 76 — Real Property
- Chapter 77 — Revenue and Taxation
Any citation that opens with one of these numbers already tells you the general subject before you read a word of the text.
Where to Read the Statutes
The official, up-to-date source is the Nebraska Legislature’s website at nebraskalegislature.gov. It offers a keyword search and a browsable chapter-by-chapter index, and the text is updated to incorporate recent session laws.1Nebraska Legislature. Browse Statutes by Chapter If you already have a section number, type it in and go straight to the text. If you only know the subject, browsing by chapter is usually faster than a keyword search that returns too many hits.
Printed copies of the Revised Statutes of Nebraska sit on the shelves of public libraries and law libraries. Because the Legislature changes the law every session, the state publishes Cumulative Supplements that are tucked into the back of the bound volumes or issued as separate booklets; the Revisor of Statutes oversees both the supplements and full replacement volumes.2Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 49-705 – Revisor of Statutes; Supplements and Reissued or Replacement Volumes; Powers Law libraries often carry annotated editions as well, with case summaries printed under each section. When the plain text does not answer your question, the annotations usually point you to a court decision that will.
When a New Law Enters the Statutes and Takes Effect
Nebraska has a one-chamber Legislature, called the Unicameral, with 49 senators. A bill is introduced by a senator, gets a public hearing in committee, moves through three rounds of floor debate if it advances, and then goes to the Governor, who can sign it, let it become law without a signature, or veto it. The Legislature can override a veto with a three-fifths vote of all members elected, which is 30 of the 49 senators.5Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska State Constitution Article IV-15 After a bill becomes law, the Revisor’s office folds the new language into the Revised Statutes.
A signature alone does not make a law enforceable. Under the Nebraska Constitution, legislation takes effect three calendar months after the Legislature adjourns the session, a date known as adjournment sine die.6Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska State Constitution Article III-27 The 2026 session is scheduled to adjourn on April 17, which would put the standard effective date for most new laws from that session in mid-July 2026.
The exception is the emergency clause. When the Legislature includes emergency language in a bill, the law takes effect immediately on the Governor’s signature or on a date the bill specifies. Attaching that clause requires a two-thirds vote of all members elected, a higher threshold than the simple majority needed to pass the bill itself.6Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska State Constitution Article III-27 Emergency clauses are used when a three-month delay would cause real problems, such as funding gaps or public safety concerns.
When you read a statute online, check whether a recent amendment has been enacted but is not yet in force. The published text generally reflects current law, but a bill passed in the most recent session may not take effect until the three-month window closes.
How Courts Interpret the Text
Reading a statute is sometimes only half the job. When the language is clear, Nebraska courts apply its plain, ordinary meaning and stop there. If the text is genuinely ambiguous, courts then look beyond it to legislative history, committee records, and floor debate transcripts.
One interpretive principle worth knowing is legislative acquiescence. When the Nebraska Supreme Court has interpreted a statute and the Legislature later amends the statute without disturbing that interpretation, courts presume the Legislature agreed with how the court read the law. The presumption can be rebutted, but doing so requires something specific in the amended text or its legislative history that contradicts the earlier reading. The practical meaning of a Nebraska statute is therefore shaped by court decisions as well as by the words on the page, which is one more reason the annotated editions, with their case summaries under each section, are worth opening alongside the raw text.