Article IV — Legislative Department

Legislative authority vested in assembly; initiative and referendum; style of bills. [annotations 2] Initiative and referendum on parts of laws and on local, special and municipal laws. [annotations 3] Payment for signatures. [annotations 4] [notes 2] [notes 3] It shall be unlawf…

The Senate shall consist of sixteen, and the House of Representatives of thirty four members, which number shall not be increased until the year Eighteen Hundred and Sixty, after which time the Legislative Assembly may increase the number of Senators and Representatives, always k…

How Senators and Representatives chosen; filling vacancies; qualifications. [annotations 6] The senators and representatives shall be chosen by the electors of the respective counties or districts or subdistricts within a county or district into which the state may from time to t…

Term of office of legislators; classification of Senators. [annotations 8] The Senators shall be elected for the term of four years, and Representatives for the term of two years. The term of each Senator and Representative shall commence on the second Monday in January following…

Census. [annotations 9]

Apportionment of Senators and Representatives. [annotations 11] At the regular session of the Legislative Assembly next following an enumeration of the inhabitants by the United States Government, the number of Senators and Representatives shall be fixed by law and apportioned am…

Senatorial districts; senatorial and representative subdistricts. [annotations 12] A senatorial district, when more than one county shall constitute the same, shall be composed of contiguous counties, and no county shall be divided in creating such senatorial districts. Senatoria…

Qualification of Senators and Representatives; effect of felony conviction. [annotations 13] No person shall be a Senator or Representative who at the time of election is not a citizen of the United States; nor anyone who has not been for one year next preceding the election an i…

Senators and Representatives in all cases, except for treason, felony, or breaches of the peace, shall be privileged from arrest during the session of the Legislative Assembly, and in going to and returning from the same; and shall not be subject to any civil process during the s…

The sessions of the Legislative Assembly shall be held biennially at the Capitol of the State commencing on the second Monday of September, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty eight, and on the same day of every second year thereafter, unless a different day shall have been ap…

Each house when assembled, shall choose its own officers, judge of the election, qualifications, and returns of its own members; determine its own rules of proceeding, and sit upon its own adjournments; but neither house shall without the concurrence of the other, adjourn for mor…

Two thirds of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may meet; adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members. A quorum being in attendance, if either house fail to effect an organization within the first five days thereaft…

Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings.–The yeas and nays on any question, shall at the request of any two members, be entered, together with the names of the members demanding the same, on the journal; provided that on a motion to adjourn it shall require one tenth o…

Deliberations to be open; rules to implement requirement. [annotations 16] The deliberations of each house, of committees of each house or joint committees and of committees of the whole, shall be open. Each house shall adopt rules to implement the requirement of this section and…

Either house may punish its members for disorderly behavior, and may with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member; but not a second time for the same cause.–

Either house, during its session, may punish by imprisonment, any person, not a member, who shall have been guilty of disrespect to the house by disorderly or contemptious [sic] behavior in its presence, but such imprisonment shall not at any time, exceed twenty twenty [sic] four…

Each house shall have all powers necessary for a branch of the Legislative Department, of a free, and independant [sic] State.–

Bills may originate in either house, but may be amended, or rejected in the other; except that bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.–

Reading of bills; vote on final passage. [annotations 17] Every bill shall be read by title only on three several days, in each house, unless in case of emergency two-thirds of the house where such bill may be pending shall, by a vote of yeas and nays, deem it expedient to dispen…

Subject and title of Act. [annotations 18] Every Act shall embrace but one subject, and matters properly connected therewith, which subject shall be expressed in the title. But if any subject shall be embraced in an Act which shall not be expressed in the title, such Act shall be…

Every act, and joint resolution shall be plainly worded, avoiding as far as practicable the use of technical terms.–

Mode of revision and amendment. [annotations 19] No act shall ever be revised, or amended by mere reference to its title, but the act revised, or section amended shall be set forth, and published at full length. However, if, at any session of the Legislative Assembly, there are e…

The Legislative Assembly, shall not pass special or local laws, in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say:– Regulating the jurisdiction, and duties of justices of the peace, and of constables; For the punishment of Crimes, and Misdemeanors; Regulating the practice …

Provision may be made by general law, for bringing suit against the State, as to all liabilities originating after, or existing at the time of the adoption of this Constitution; but no special act authorizeing [sic] such suit to be brought, or making compensation to any person cl…

Majority necessary to pass bills and resolutions; special requirements for bills raising revenue; signatures of presiding officers required. [annotations 20] Except as otherwise provided in subsection (2) of this section, a majority of all the members elected to each House shall …

Any member of either house, shall have the right to protest, and have his protest, with his reasons for dissent, entered on the journal.–

Every Statute shall be a public law, unless otherwise declared in the Statute itself.–

No act shall take effect, until ninety days from the end of the session at which the same shall have been passed, except in case of emergency; which emergency shall be declared in the preamble, or in the body of the law.

Compensation of members. [annotations 21] The members of the Legislative Assembly shall receive for their services a salary to be established and paid in the same manner as the salaries of other elected state officers and employes [sic].

No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he may have been elected, be eligible to any office the election to which is vested in the Legislative Assembly; nor shall be appointed to any civil office of profit which shall have been created, or the emoluments of …

The members of the Legislative Assembly shall before they enter on the duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation;–I do solemnly swear (or affirm as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the C…

Income tax defined by federal law; review of tax laws required. [annotations 22] Notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution, the Legislative Assembly, in any law imposing a tax or taxes on, in respect to or measured by income, may define the income on, in respect to…

Reduction of criminal sentences approved by initiative or referendum process. [annotations 23] Notwithstanding the provisions of section 25 of this Article, a two-thirds vote of all the members elected to each house shall be necessary to pass a bill that reduces a criminal senten…