USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky > Part 14
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SEC. 14. All courts shall be open, and every person, for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and right and justice administered without sale, denial, or delay.
SEC. 15. No power to suspend laws shall be exercised, unless by the General Assembly or its authority.
SEC. 16. All prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient securities, un- less for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great ; and the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus- pended, unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.
SEC. 17. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishment inflicted.
SEC. 18. The person of a debtor, where there is not strong pre- sumption of fraud, shall not be continued in prison after delivering up his estate for the benefit of his creditors in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 19. No ex post facto law, nor any law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall be enacted.
SEC. 20. No person shall be attainted of treason or felony by the General Assembly, and no attainder shall work corruption of blood, nor, except during the life of the offender, forfeiture of estate to the Commonwealth.
SEC. 21. The estate of such persons as shall destroy their own lives shall descend or vest as in cases of natural death ; and if any person shall be killed by casualty, there shall be no forfeiture by reason thereof.
SEC. 22. No standing army shall, in time of peace, be maintained ' without the consent of the General Assembly ; and the military shall, in all cases and at all times, be in strict subordination to the civil power ; nor shall any soldier, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, except in a manner prescribed by law.
SEC. 23. The General Assembly shall not grant any title of nobility or hereditary distinction, nor create any office the appointment of which shall be for a longer time than a term of years.
SEC. 24. Emigration from the State shall not be prohibited.
SEC. 25. Slavery and involuntary servitude in this State are forbid- den, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.
SEC. 26. To guard against transgression of the high powers which we have delegated, we declare that everything in this Bill of Rights is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever
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remain inviolate ; and all laws contrary thereto, or contrary to this Constitution, shall be void.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT.
SEC. 27. The powers of the government of the Commonwealth of Kentucky shall be divided into three distinct departments, and each of them be confined to a separate body of magistracy : to wit, those which are legislative, to one ; those which are executive, to another ; and those which are judicial, to another.
SEC. 28. No person, or collection of persons, being of one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.
LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT.
SEC. 29. The legislative power shall be vested in a House of Repre- sentatives and a Senate, which together shall be styled the " General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
SEC. 30. Members of the House of Representatives and senators elected at the August election in one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, and senators then holding over, shall continue in office until and including the last day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three. Thereafter the term of office of representa- tives and senators shall begin upon the first day of January of the year succeeding their election.
SEC. 31. At the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three one senator shall be elected in each sena- torial district, and one representative in each representative district. The senators then elected shall hold their offices, one-half for two years and one-half for four years, as shall be determined by lot at the first session of the General Assembly after their election, and the representatives shall hold their offices for two years. Every two years thereafter there shall be elected for four years one senator in each senatorial district in which the term of his predecessor in office will then expire, and in every representative district one representative for two years.
SEC. 32. No person shall be a representative who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of Kentucky, has not attained the age of twenty-four years, and who has not resided in this State two years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the county, town, or city for which he may be chosen. No person shall be a sen- ator who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of Kentucky, has not attained the age of thirty years, and has not resided in this State six years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof in the district for which he may be chosen.
SEC. 33. The first General Assembly after the adoption of this Con- stitution shall divide the State into thirty-eight senatorial districts, and one hundred representative districts, as nearly equal in popula-
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tion as may be without dividing any county, except where a county may include more than one district, which districts shall constitute the senatorial and representative districts for ten years. Not more than two counties shall be joined together to form a representative dis- trict : provided, in doing so, the principle requiring every district to be as nearly equal in population as may be shall not be violated. At the expiration of that time, the General Assembly shall then, and every ten years thereafter, redistrict the State according to this rule, and for the purposes expressed in this section. If, in making said districts, inequality of population should be unavoidable, any advan- tage resulting therefrom shall be given to districts having the largest territory. No part of a county shall be added to another county to make a district, and the counties forming a district shall be con- tiguous.
SEC. 34. The House of Representatives shall choose its speaker and other officers, and the Senate shall have power to choose its officers, biennially.
SEC. 35. The number of representatives shall be one hundred, and the number of senators thirty-eight.
SEC. 36. The first General Assembly, the members of which shall be elected under this Constitution, shall meet on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and thereafter the General Assembly shall meet on the same day every second year, and its sessions shall be held at the seat of gov- ernment, except in case of war, insurrection, or pestilence, when it may, by proclamation of the governor, assemble, for the time being, elsewhere.
SEC. 37. Not less than a majority of the members of each House of the General Assembly shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and shall be authorized by law to compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 38. Each House of the General Assembly shall judge of the qualifications, elections, and returns of its members, but a contested election shall be determined in such manner as shall be directed by law.
SEC. 39. Each House of the General Assembly may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish a member for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second time for the same cause, and may punish for contempt any person who refuses to attend as a witness, or to bring any paper proper to be used as evidence before the General Assembly or either House thereof, or a committee of either, or to testify concerning any matter which may be a proper subject of inquiry by the General Assembly, or offers or gives a bribe to a member of the General Assembly, or attempts by other corrupt means or device to control or influence a member to cast his vote or withhold the same. The pun- ishment and mode of proceeding for contempt in such cases shall be prescribed by law, but the term of imprisonment in any such case shall not extend beyond the session of the General Assembly.
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SEC. 40. Each House of the General Assembly shall keep and publish daily a journal of its proceedings ; and the yeas and nays of the members on any question shall, at the desire of any two of the members elected, be entered on the journal.
SEC. 41. Neither House, during the session of the General Assem- bly, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which it may be sitting.
SEC. 42. The members of the General Assembly shall severally receive from the State treasury compensation for their services, which shall be five dollars a day during their attendance on, and fifteen cents per mile for the necessary travel in going to and returning from, the sessions of their respective Houses : provided the same may be changed by law ; but no change shall take effect during the session at which it is made ; nor shall a session of the General Assembly con tinue beyond sixty legislative days, exclusive of Sundays and legal holidays ; but this limitation as to length of session shall not apply to the first session held under this Constitution, nor to the Senate when sitting as a court of impeachment. A legislative day shall be con- strued to mean a calendar day.
SEC. 43. The members of the General Assembly shall, in all cases except treason, felony, breach or surety of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance on the sessions of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place.
SEC. 44. No senator or representative shall, during the term for which he was elected, nor for one year thereafter, be appointed or elected to any civil office of profit in this Commonwealth, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during the said term, except to such offices as may be filled by the election of the people.
SEC. 45. No person who may have been a collector of taxes or public moneys for the Commonwealth, or for any county, city, town, or district, or the assistant or deputy of such collector, shall be eligible to the General Assembly, unless he shall have obtained a quietus six months before the election for the amount of such collection, and for all public moneys for which he may have been responsible.
SEC. 46. No bill shall be considered for final passage, unless the same has been reported by a committee, and printed for the use of the members. Every bill shall be read at length on three different days in each House, but the second and third readings may be dis- pensed with by a majority of all the members elected to the House in which the bill is pending. But whenever a committee refuses or fails to report à bill submitted to it in a reasonable time, the same may be called up by any member, and be considered in the same manner it would have been considered if it had been reported. No bill shall become a law unless, on its final passage, it receives the votes of at least two-fifths of the members elected to each House, and a majority of the members voting, the vote to be taken by yeas and nays and en-
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tered in the journal : provided any act or resolution for the appropri- ation of money or the creation of debt shall, on its final passage, receive the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each House.
SEC. 47. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose amendments thereto : provided no new matter shall be introduced, under color of amend- ment, which does not relate to raising revenue.
SEC. 48. The General Assembly shall have no power to enact laws to diminish the resources of the sinking fund as now established by law until the debt of the Commonwealth be paid, but may enact laws to increase them ; and the whole resources of said fund, from year to year, shall be sacredly set apart, and applied to the payment of the in- terest and principal of the State debt, and to no other use or purpose, until the whole debt of the State is fully satisfied.
SEC. 49. The General Assembly may contract debts to meet casual deficits or failures in the revenue ; but such debts, direct or contingent, singly or in the aggregate, shall not at any time exceed five hundred thousand dollars, and the moneys arising from loans creating such debts shall be applied only to the purpose or purposes for which they were obtained, or to repay such debts : provided the General Assembly may contract debts to repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or, if hos- tilities are threatened, provide for the public defense.
SEC. 50. No act of the General Assembly shall authorize any debt to be contracted on behalf of the Commonwealth except for the pur- poses mentioned in section forty-nine, unless provision be made therein to levy and collect an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest stipu- lated, and to discharge the debt within thirty years ; nor shall such act take effect until it shall have been submitted to the people at a general election, and shall have received a majority of all the votes cast for and against it : provided the General Assembly may contract debts by borrowing money to pay any part of the debt of the State, without submission to the people, and without making provision in the act authorizing the same for a tax to discharge the debt so contracted, or the interest thereon.
SEC. 51. No law enacted by the General Assembly shall relate to more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title, and no law shall be revised, amended, or the provisions thereof extended or conferred by reference to its title only ; but so much thereof as is revised, amended, extended, or conferred shall be reenacted and published at length.
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SEC. 52. The General Assembly shall have no power to release, extinguish, or authorize the releasing or extinguishing, in whole or in part, the indebtedness or liability of any corporation or individual to this Commonwealth, or to any county or municipality thereof.
SEC. 53. The General Assembly shall provide by law for monthly investigations into the accounts of the treasurer and auditor of public accounts, and the result of these investigations shall be reported to the governor, and these reports shall be semi-annually published in two newspapers of general circulation in the State. The reports received by the governor shall, at the beginning of each session, be transmitted
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by him to the General Assembly for scrutiny and appropriate action.
SEC. 54. The General Assembly shall have no power to limit the amount to be recovered for injuries resulting in death, or for injuries to person or property.
SEC. 55. No act, except general appropriation bills, shall become a law until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was passed, except in cases of emergency, when, by the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly, by a yea and nay vote entered upon their journals, an act may become a law when approved by the governor ; but the reasons for the emergency that justifies this action must be set out at length in the journal of each House.
SEC. 56. No bill shall become a law until the same shall have been signed by the presiding officer of each of the two Houses in open ses- sion ; and before such officer shall have affixed his signature to any bill, he shall suspend all other business, declare that such bill will now be read, and that he will sign the same, to the end that it may become a law. The bill shall then be read at length and compared ; and, if correctly enrolled, he shall, in presence of the House in open session, and before any other business is entertained, affix his signature, which fact shall be noted in the journal, and the bill immediately sent to the other House. When it reaches the other House, the presiding officer thereof shall immediately suspend all other business, announce the reception of the bill, and the same proceeding shall thereupon be observed in every respect as in the House in which it was first signed. And thereupon the clerk of the latter House shall immediately pre- sent the same to the governor for his signature and approval.
SEC. 57. A member who has a personal or private interest in any measure or bill proposed or pending before the General Assembly, shall disclose the fact to the House of which he is a member, and shall not vote thereon upon pain of expulsion.
SEC. 58. The General Assembly shall neither audit nor allow any private claim against the Commonwealth, except for expenses incurred during the session at which the same was allowed, but may appropriate money to pay such claim as shall have been audited and allowed ac- cording to law.
LOCAL AND SPECIAL LEGISLATION.
SEC. 59. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special acts concerning any of the following subjects, or for any of the following purposes : namely,-
I. To regulate the jurisdiction, or the practice, or the circuits of courts of justice, or the rights, powers, duties, or compensation of the officers thereof ; but the practice in circuit courts in continuous ses- sion may, by a general law, be made different from the practice of circuit courts held in terms.
2. To regulate the summoning, impaneling, or compensation of grand or petit jurors.
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3. To provide for changes of venue in civil or criminal causes.
4. To regulate the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, or to remit fines, penalties, or forfeitures.
5. To regulate the limitation of civil or criminal causes.
6. To affect the estate of cestuis que trust, decedents, infants, or other persons under disabilities, or to authorize any such persons to sell, lease, encumber, or dispose of their property.
7. To declare any person of age, or to relieve an infant or feme covert of disability, or to enable him to do acts allowed only to adults not under disabilities.
8. To change the law of descent, distribution, or succession.
9. To authorize the adoption or legitimation of children.
IO. To grant divorces.
II. To change the name of persons.
12. To give effect to invalid deeds, wills, or other instruments.
13. To legalize, except as against the Commonwealth, the unau- thorized or invalid act of any officer or public agent of the Common- wealth, or of any city, county, or municipality thereof.
14. To refund money legally paid into the State treasury.
15. To authorize or to regulate the levy, the assessment, or the col- lection of taxes, or to give any indulgence or discharge to any assessor or collector of taxes, or to his sureties.
16. To authorize the opening, altering, maintaining, or vacating roads, highways, streets, alleys, town plats, cemeteries, graveyards, or public grounds not owned by the Commonwealth.
17. To grant a charter to any corporation, or to amend the charter of any existing corporation ; to license companies or persons to own or operate ferries, bridges, roads, or turnpikes ; to declare streams navigable, or to authorize the construction of booms or dams therein, or to remove obstructions therefrom ; to affect toll-gates or to regu- late tolls ; to regulate fencing or the running at large of stock.
18. To create, increase, or decrease fees, percentages, or allow- ances to public officers, or to extend the time for the collection thereof,. or to authorize officers to appoint deputies.
19. To give any person or corporation the right to lay a railroad .. track or tramway, or to amend existing charters for such purposes. -
20. To provide for conducting elections, or for designating the places of voting, or changing the boundaries of wards, precincts, or districts, except when new counties may be created.
21. To regulate the rate of interest.
22. To authorize the creation, extension, enforcement, impair- ment, or release of liens.
23. To provide for the protection of game and fish.
24. To regulate labor, trade, mining, or manufacturing.
25. To provide for the management of common schools.
26. To locate or change a county seat.
27. To provide a means of taking the sense of the people of any city, town, district, precinct, or county, whether they wish to author- ize, regulate, or prohibit therein the sale of vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors, or alter the liquor laws.
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28. Restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous crimes. 29. In all other cases where a general law can be made applica- ble, no special law shall be enacted.
SEC. 60. The General Assembly shall not indirectly enact any special or local act by the repeal in part of a general act, or by ex- empting from the operation of a general act any city, town, district, or county ; but laws repealing local or special acts may be enacted. No law shall be enacted granting powers or privileges in any case where the granting of such powers or privileges shall have been pro- vided for by a general law, nor where the courts have jurisdiction to grant the same or to give the relief asked for. No law, except such as relates to the sale, loan, or gift of vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors, bridges, turnpikes or other public roads, public buildings or improvements, fencing, running at large of stock, matters pertaining to common schools, paupers, and the regulation by counties, cities, towns, or other municipalities, of their local affairs, shall be enacted to take effect upon the approval of any other authority than the Gen- eral Assembly, unless otherwise expressly provided in this Constitu- tion.
SEC. 61. The General Assembly shall by general law provide a means whereby the sense of the people of any county, city, town, dis- trict, or precinct may be taken, as to whether or not spirituous, vin- ous, or malt liquors shall be sold, bartered, or loaned therein. or the sale thereof regulated ; but nothing herein shall be construed to in- terfere with or to repeal any law in force relating to the sale or gift of such liquors. All elections on this question may be held on a day other than the regular election days.
SEC. 62. The style of the laws of this Commonwealth shall be as follows : " Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Common- wealth of Kentucky."
COUNTIES AND COUNTY SEATS.
SEC. 63. No new county shall be created by the General Assem- bly which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to less area than four hundred square miles ; nor shall any county be formed of less area ; nor shall any boundary line thereof pass within less than ten miles of any county seat of the county or counties proposed to be divided. Nothing contained herein shall prevent the General Assembly from abolishing any county.
SEC. 64. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom, except in the formation of new counties, without submit- ting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless the majority of all the legal voters of the county voting on the question shall vote for the same. The county seat of no county as now located, or as may hereafter be located, shall be moved, except upon a vote of two-thirds of those voting ; nor shall any new county be established which will reduce any county to less than twelve thousand inhabit- ants, nor shall any county be created containing a less population.
SEC. 65. There shall be no territory stricken from any county un-
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less a majority of the voters living in such territory shall petition for such division ; but the portion so stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or in part into a new county, shall be bound for its proportion of the indebtedness of the county from which it has been taken.
IMPEACHMENTS.
SEC. 66. The House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment.
SEC. 67. All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be upon oath or affirmation. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present.
SEC. 68. The governor and all civil officers shall be liable to im- peachment for any misdemeanors in office ; but judgment in such cases shall not extend further than removal from office, and disquali- fication to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under this Com- monwealth ; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be subject and liable to indictment, trial, and punishment by law.
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