Regulation status states
A regulation’s status is an explicit lifecycle state, not a single on/off flag. Two separate questions matter: is it on the books, and is enforcement currently active?
| State | Meaning | On the books? | Enforcement active? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposed | Not yet law, proposed and open for comment. | No | No |
| In effect | Legally in force. | Yes | No |
| Enforced | In force and actively enforced. | Yes | Yes |
| Stayed | In force, but enforcement is currently paused. | Yes | No |
Why “stayed” is its own state
A rule can be law while its enforcement is paused, for example, pending an appeal. California SB 261 is the canonical case. A tool that collapses this into “active” or “inactive” gets it wrong in both directions: it either overstates a paused obligation or erases one that is still on the books. Keeping on the books and enforcement active as separate facts is what lets the scope checker report that an obligation applies while its enforcement is stayed.
Status also changes over time, and a later correction can revise what we believed about a past date. The as-of-date slider makes that history visible.