Part 27 (1/2)
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.