Reich government ministers were required to inform the Reichsrat of proposed legislation or administrative regulations and allow it to voice objections.

[1] After Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933, he initiated the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination) to assume control of all aspects of the German government and society.

[6] A further counterargument advanced by historian Richard J. Evans noted that many of the state governments had been overthrown by the Nazis under the Reichstag Fire Decree, and therefore "were not properly constituted or represented" when the Reichsrat gave its assent to the above laws.

[7] Needless to say, these constitutional points concerning the legitimacy of the law were never litigated by the Supreme Judicial Court in Nazi Germany.

Enactment of the law abolished the Reichsrat and formally removed the participation of the German states in national legislation.

One need look no further than the Reichsrat action in passing the Enabling Act on the evening of 23 March 1933, where "proceedings only occupied a few minutes, unanimous approval being given without a debate" to see that it no longer served as an independent and deliberative legislative body but was now reduced to "rubber stamp" status.

[8] The states would not recover their national legislative function until May 1949 when the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany made provisions for a Bundesrat, which became the successor organization to the Reichsrat.