Civil Government of Virginia Part 27

Further evidence of the prepayment of the capitation taxes required by this Const.i.tution, as a prerequisite to the right to register and vote, may be prescribed by law.

ARTICLE III.

DIVISION OF POWERS.

SEC. 39. Except as hereinafter provided, the legislative, executive, and judiciary departments shall be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to either of the others, nor any person exercise the power of more than one of them at the same time.

ARTICLE IV.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.

SEC. 40. The legislative power of the State shall be vested in a General a.s.sembly, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Delegates.

SEC. 41. The Senate shall consist of not more than forty and not less than thirty-three members, who shall be elected quadrennially by the voters of the several senatorial districts, on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November.

SEC. 42. The House of Delegates shall consist of not more than one hundred and not less than ninety members, who shall be elected biennially by the voters of the several house districts, on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November.

SEC. 43. The apportionment of the State into senatorial and house districts, made by the acts of the General a.s.sembly, approved April the second, nineteen hundred and two, is hereby adopted; but a re-apportionment may be made in the year nineteen hundred and six, and shall be made in the year nineteen hundred and twelve, and every tenth year thereafter.

SEC. 44. Any person may be elected senator who, at the time of election, is actually a resident of the senatorial district and qualified to vote for members of the General a.s.sembly; and any person may be elected a member of the House of Delegates who, at the time of election, is actually a resident of the house district and qualified to vote for members of the General a.s.sembly. But no person holding a salaried office under the state government, and no judge of any court, attorney for the Commonwealth, sheriff, sergeant, treasurer, a.s.sessor of taxes, commissioner of the revenue, collector of taxes, or clerk of any court, shall be a member of either house of the General a.s.sembly during his continuance in office, and the election of any such person to either house of the General a.s.sembly, and his qualification as a member thereof, shall vacate any such office held by him; and no person holding any office or post of profit or emolument under the United States Government or who is in the employment of such government, shall be eligible to either house. The removal of a senator or delegate from the district for which he is elected, shall vacate his office.

SEC. 45. The members of the General a.s.sembly shall receive for their services a salary to be fixed by law and paid from the public treasury; but no act increasing such salary shall take effect until after the end of the term for which the members voting thereon were elected; and no member during the term for which he shall have been elected, shall be appointed or elected to any civil office of profit in the State except offices filled by election by the people.

SEC. 46. The General a.s.sembly shall meet once in two years on the second Wednesday in January next succeeding the election of the members of the House of Delegates and not oftener unless convened in the manner prescribed by this Const.i.tution. No session of the General a.s.sembly, after the first under this Const.i.tution, shall continue longer than sixty days; but with the concurrence of three-fifths of the members elected to each house, the session may be extended for a period not exceeding thirty days. Except for the first session held under this Const.i.tution, members shall be allowed a salary for not exceeding sixty days at any regular session, and for not exceeding thirty days at any extra session.

Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn to another place nor for more than three days. A majority of the members elected to each house shall const.i.tute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and shall have power to compel the attendance of members in such manner and under such penalty as each house may prescribe.

SEC. 47. The House of Delegates shall choose its own speaker; and, in the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor, or when he shall exercise the office of Governor, the Senate shall choose from their own body a president pro tempore. Each house shall select its officers, settle its rules of procedure, and direct writs of election for supplying vacancies which may occur during the session of the General a.s.sembly; but, if vacancies occur during the recess, such writs may be issued by the Governor, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. Each house shall judge of the election, qualification, and returns of its members; may punish them for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.

SEC. 48. Members of the General a.s.sembly shall, in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during the sessions of their respective houses; and for any speech or debate in either house shall not be questioned in any other place. They shall not be subject to arrest, under any civil process, during the sessions of the General a.s.sembly, or the fifteen days next before the beginning or after the ending of any session.

SEC. 49. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be published from time to time, and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal.

SEC. 50. No law shall be enacted except by bill. A bill may originate in either house, to be approved or rejected by the other, or may be amended by either, with the concurrence of the other.

No bill shall become a law unless, prior to its pa.s.sage, it has been,

(a) Referred to a committee of each house, considered by such committee in session, and reported;

(b) Printed by the house, in which it originated, prior to its pa.s.sage therein;

(c) Read at length on three different calendar days in each house; and unless,

(d) A yea and nay vote has been taken in each house upon its final pa.s.sage, the names of the members voting for and against entered on the journal, and a majority of those voting, which shall include at least two-fifths of the members elected to each house, recorded in the affirmative.

And only in the manner required in subdivision (d) of this section shall an amendment to a bill by one house be concurred in by the other, or a conference report be adopted by either house, or either house discharge a committee from the consideration of a bill and consider the same as if reported; provided that the printing and reading, or either, required in subdivisions (b) and (c) of this section, may be dispensed with in a bill to codify the laws of the State, and in any case of emergency by a vote of four- fifths of the members voting in each house taken by the yeas and nays, the names of the members voting for and against, entered on the journal; and provided further, that no bill which creates, or establishes a new office, or which creates, continues, or revives a debt or charge, or makes, continues or revives any appropriation of public or trust money, or property, or releases, discharges or commutes any claim or demand of the State, or which imposes, continues or revives a tax, shall be pa.s.sed except by the affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected to each house, the vote to be by the yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against, entered on the journal. Every law imposing, continuing or reviving a tax shall specifically state such tax and no law shall be construed as so stating such tax, which requires a reference to any other law or any other tax. The presiding officer of each house shall, in the presence of the house over which he presides, sign every bill that has been pa.s.sed by both houses and duly enrolled. Immediately before this is done, all other business being suspended, the t.i.tle of the bill shall be publicly read. The fact of signing shall be entered on the journal.

SEC. 51. There shall be a joint committee of the General a.s.sembly, consisting of seven members appointed by the House of Delegates, and five members appointed by the Senate, which shall be a standing committee on special, private, and local legislation.

Before reference to a committee, as provided by section Fifty, any special, private, or local bill introduced in either house shall be referred to and considered by such joint committee and returned to the house in which it originated with a statement in writing whether the object of the bill can be accomplished under general law or by court proceeding; whereupon, the bill, with the accompanying statement, shall take the course provided by section Fifty. The joint committee may be discharged from the consideration of a bill by the house in which it originated in the manner provided in section Fifty for the discharge of other committees.

SEC. 52. No law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its t.i.tle; nor shall any law be revived or amended with reference to its t.i.tle, but the act revived or the section amended shall be re-enacted and published at length.

SEC. 53. No law, except a general appropriation law, shall take effect until at least ninety days after the adjournment of the session of the General a.s.sembly at which it is enacted, unless in case of an emergency (which emergency shall be expressed in the body of the bill), the General a.s.sembly shall otherwise direct by a vote of four-fifths of the members voting in each house, such vote to be taken by the yeas and nays, and the names of the members voting for and against entered on the journal.

SEC. 54. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Attorney-General, judges, members of the State Corporation Commission, and executive officers at the seat of government, and all officers appointed by the Governor or elected by the General a.s.sembly, offending against the State by malfeasance in office, corruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor, may be impeached by the House of Delegates, and prosecuted before the Senate which shall have the sole power to try impeachment. When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State; but the person convicted shall nevertheless be subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. The Senate may sit during the recess of the General a.s.sembly for the trial of impeachments.

SEC. 55. The General a.s.sembly shall by law apportion the State into districts, corresponding with the number of representatives to which it may be ent.i.tled in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States; which districts shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory containing, as nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants.

SEC. 56. The manner of conducting and making returns of elections, of determining contested elections, and of filling vacancies in office, in cases not specially provided for by this Const.i.tution, shall be prescribed by law, and the General a.s.sembly may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant where no provision is made for that purpose in this Const.i.tution.

SEC. 57. The General a.s.sembly shall have power, by a two-thirds vote, to remove disabilities incurred under section Twenty-three, of Article Two, of this Const.i.tution, with reference to duelling.

SEC. 58. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of invasion or rebellion, the public safety may require. The General a.s.sembly shall not pa.s.s any bill of attainder, or any ex post facto law, or any law impairing the obligation of contracts, or any law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. It shall not enact any law whereby private property shall be taken or damaged for public uses, without just compensation. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. And the General a.s.sembly shall not prescribe any religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any sect or denomination, or pa.s.s any law requiring or authorizing any religious society, or the people of any district within this State, to levy on themselves or others any tax for the erection or repair of any house of public worship, or for the support of any church or ministry; but it shall be left free to every person to select his religious instructor, and to make for his support such private contract as he shall please.

SEC. 59. The General a.s.sembly shall not grant a charter of incorporation to any church or religious denomination, but may secure the t.i.tle to church property to an extent to be limited by law.

SEC. 60. No lottery shall hereafter be authorized by law; and the buying, selling, or transferring of tickets or chances in any lottery shall be prohibited.

SEC. 61. No new county shall be formed with an area of less than six hundred square miles; nor shall the county or counties from which it is formed be reduced below that area; nor shall any county be reduced in population below eight thousand. But any county, the length of which is three times its mean breadth, or which exceeds fifty miles in length, may be divided at the discretion of the General a.s.sembly.

SEC. 62. The General a.s.sembly shall have full power to enact local option or dispensary laws, or any other laws controlling, regulating, or prohibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors.

SEC. 63. The General a.s.sembly shall confer on the courts power to grant divorces, change the names of persons, and direct the sale of estates belonging to infants and other persons under legal disabilities, and shall not, by special legislation, grant relief in these or other cases of which the courts or other tribunals may have jurisdiction. The General a.s.sembly may regulate the exercise by courts of the right to punish for contempt. The General a.s.sembly shall not enact any local, special, or private law in the following cases:--

1. For the punishment of crime.

2. Providing a change of venue in civil or criminal cases.

3. Regulating the practice in, or the jurisdiction of, or changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceedings or inquiry before, the courts or other tribunals, or providing or changing the methods of collecting debts or enforcing judgments, or prescribing the effect of judicial sales of real estate.

4. Changing or locating county seats.

5. For the a.s.sessment and collection of taxes, except as to animals which the General a.s.sembly may deem dangerous to the farming interests.

6. Extending the time for the a.s.sessment or collection of taxes.

7. Exempting property from taxation.

8. Remitting, releasing, postponing, or diminishing any obligation or liability of any person, corporation, or a.s.sociation, to the State or to any political subdivision thereof.