Daylight Saving Time laws
This Sunday, November 7, most residents of the United States will turn back the clock one hour in observance of Daylight Saving Time (see our previous posts about this observance from March and last October). However, some states are exempt from observing Daylight Saving Time. How does that happen?
The Federal Law governing Daylight Saving (15 U.S. Code §260 et seq.) provides that "any State that lies entirely within one time zone may by law exempt itself from the provisions of this subsection providing for the advancement of time" (§260a(a)). Two U.S. states have enacted laws exempting observance of Daylight Saving Time: Hawaii and Arizona. Hawaii's standard time law was amended in 1967 (H.R.S. §1-31). Arizona enacted its exemption law (A.R.S. §1-242) in 1968 (see the Arizona State Library's information page on the history of Daylight Saving Time in the state).
In the 2010 General Legislative Session, Utah House Representative Kenneth W. Sumsion introduced H.B. 288 to exempt Utah from observance of Daylight Saving Time. The bill was struck by the house before it could reach the Senate. If it had been enacted into law, it would have taken effect January 1, 2011.