USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky > Part 16
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SEC. 123. The style of process shall be " The Commonwealth of Kentucky." All prosecutions shall be carried on in the name and by the authority of the "Commonwealth of Kentucky," and conclude against the peace and dignity of the same.
SEC. 124. The clerks of the Court of Appeals, circuit and county courts, shall be removable from office by the Court of Appeals, upon information and good cause shown. The court shall be judge of the facts as well as the law. Two-thirds of the members present must concur in the sentence.
CIRCUIT COURTS.
SEC. 125. A circuit court shall be established in each county now existing, or which may hereafter be created, in this Commonwealth.
SEC. 126. The jurisdiction of said court shall be and remain as now established, hereby giving to the General Assembly the power to change it.
SEC. 127. The right to appeal or sue out a writ of error shall re- main as it now exists until altered by law, hereby giving to the Gen- eral Assembly the power to change or modify said right.
SEC. 128. At its first session after the adoption of this Constitution, the General Assembly, having due regard to territory, business, and population, shall divide the State into a sufficient number of judicial districts to carry into effect the provisions of this Constitution con- cerning circuit courts. In making such apportionment, no county shall be divided ; and the number of said districts, excluding those in coun- ties having a population of one hundred and fifty thousand, shall not exceed one district for each sixty thousand of the population of the entire State.
SEC. 129. The General Assembly shall, at the same time the judi-
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cial districts are laid off, direct elections to be held in each district to elect a judge therein. The first election of judges of the circuit courts under this Constitution shall take place at the annual election in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and the judges then elected shall enter upon the discharge of the duties of their respective offices on the first Monday in January after their election, and hold their offices five years, and until their successors are elected and qualified. At the general election in eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and every six years thereafter, there shall be an election for judges of the circuit courts, who shall hold their offices for six years from the first Monday in January succeeding their election. They shall be com- missioned by the governor, and continue in office until their successors shall have been qualified, but shall be removable in the same manner as the judges of the Court of Appeals. The removal of a judge from his district shall vacate his office.
SEC. 130. No person shall be eligible as judge of the circuit court who is less than thirty-five years of age when elected, who is not a citizen of Kentucky, and a resident of the district in which he may be a candidate two years next preceding his election, and who has not been a practicing lawyer eight years.
SEC. 131. There shall be at least three regular terms of circuit court held in each county every year.
SEC. 132. The General Assembly, when deemed necessary, may establish additional districts ; but the whole number of districts, ex- clusive of counties having a population of one hundred and fifty thou- sand, shall not exceed at any time one for every sixty thousand of population of the State according to the last enumeration.
SEC. 133. The judges of the circuit court shall at stated times receive for their services an adequate compensation to be fixed by law, which shall be equal and uniform throughout the State, so far as the same shall be paid out of the State treasury.
SEC. 134. The judicial districts of the State shall not be changed except at the first session after an enumeration, unless upon the estab- lishment of a new district.
SEC. 135. No courts save those provided for in this Constitution shall be established.
SEC. 136. The General Assembly shall provide by law for holding circuit courts, when from any cause the judge shall fail to attend, or, if in attendance, cannot properly preside.
SEC. 137. Each county having a population of one hundred and fifty thousand, or over, shall constitute a district, which shall be en- titled to four judges. Additional judges for said district may from time to time be authorized by the General Assembly, but not to exceed one judge for each increase of forty thousand of population in said county, to be ascertained by the last enumeration. Each of the judges in such a district shall hold a separate court, except when a general term may be held for the purpose of making rules of court, or as may be required by law : provided no general term shall have power to re- view any order, decision, or proceeding of any branch of the court in said district made in separate term. There shall be one clerk for
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such district, who shall be known as the clerk of the circuit court. Criminal causes shall be under the exclusive jurisdiction of some one branch of said court ; and all other litigation in said district, of which the circuit court may have jurisdiction, shall be distributed as equally as may be between the other branches thereof, in accordance with the rules of the court made in general term or as may be prescribed by law.
SEC. 138. Each county having a city of twenty thousand inhabit- ants, and a population, including said city, of forty thousand or more, may constitute a district ; and when its population reaches seventy-five thousand, the General Assembly may provide that it shall have an additional judge, and such district may have a judge for each addi- tional fifty thousand population above one hundred thousand. And in such counties the General Assembly shall by proper laws direct in 'what manner the court shall be held and the business therein con- ducted.
QUARTERLY COURTS.
SEC. 139. There shall be established in each county now existing. or which may be hereafter created, in this State, a court, to be styled the "quarterly court," the jurisdiction of which shall be uniform throughout the State, and shall be regulated by a general law, and, until changed, shall be the same as that now vested by law in the quarterly courts of this Commonwealth. The judges of the county court shall be the judges of the quarterly courts.
COUNTY COURTS.
SEC. 140. There shall be established in each county now existing, or which may be hereafter created, in this State, a court, to be styled the " county court," to consist of a judge, who shall be a conservator of the peace, and shall receive such compensation for his services as may be prescribed by law. He shall be commissioned by the gover- nor, and shall vacate his office by removal from the county in which he may have been elected.
SEC. 141. The jurisdiction of the county court shall be uniform throughout the State, and shall be regulated by general law, and, until changed, shall be the same as now vested in the county courts of this State by law.
JUSTICES' COURTS.
SEC. 142. Each county now existing, or which may hereafter be created, in this State, shall be laid off into districts in such manner as the General Assembly may direct ; but no county shall have less than three nor more than eight districts, in each of which districts one jus- tice of the peace shall be elected as provided in section ninety-nine. The General Assembly shall make provisions for regulating the num- ber of said districts from time to time within the limits herein pre- scribed, and for fixing the boundaries thereof. The jurisdiction of
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justices of the peace shall be coextensive with the county, and shall be equal and uniform throughout the State. Justices of the peace shall be conservators of the peace. They shall be commissioned by the governor, and shall vacate their offices by removal from the dis- tricts, respectively, in which they may have been elected.
POLICE COURTS.
SEC. 143. A police court may be established in each city and town in this State, with jurisdiction in cases of violation of municipal ordi- nances and by-laws occurring within the corporate limits of the city or' town in which it is established, and such criminal jurisdiction within the said limits as justices of the peace have. The said courts may be authorized to act as examining courts, but shall have no civil jurisdic- tion : provided, the General Assembly may confer civil jurisdiction on police courts in cities and towns of the fourth and fifth classes and in towns of the sixth class having a population of two hundred and fifty or more, which jurisdiction shall be uniform throughout the State, and not exceed that of justices of the peace.
FISCAL COURTS.
SEC. 144. Counties shall have a fiscal court, which may consist of the judge of the county court and the justices of the peace, in which court the judge of the county court shall preside, if present ; or a county may have three commissioners, to be elected from the county at large, who, together with the judge of the county court, shall con- stitute the fiscal court. A majority of the members of said court shall constitute a court for the transaction of business ; but where, for county governmental purposes, a city is by law separated from the remainder of the county, such commissioners may be elected from the part of the county outside of such city.
SUFFRAGE AND ELECTIONS.
SEC. 145. Every male citizen of the United States of the age of twenty-one years, who has resided in the State one year, and in the county six months, and in the precinct in which he offers to vote sixty days, next preceding the election, shall be a voter in said precinct, and not elsewhere ; but the following persons are excepted, and shall not have the right to vote :-
I. Persons convicted, in any court of competent jurisdiction, of trea- son, or felony, or bribery in an election, or of such high misdemeanor as the General Assembly may declare shall operate as an exclusion from the right of suffrage ; but persons hereby excluded may be re- stored to their civil rights by Executive pardon.
2. Persons who, at the time of the election, are in confinement under the judgment of a court for some penal offense.
3. Idiots and insane persons.
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SEC. 146. No person in the military, naval, or marine service of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this State by reason of being stationed within the same.
SEC. 147. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the regis- tration of all persons entitled to vote in cities and towns having a population of five thousand or more, and may provide by general law for the registration of other voters in the State. Where registration is required, only persons registered shall have the right to vote. The mode of registration shall be prescribed by the General Assembly. In all elections by persons in a representative capacity, the voting shall be viva voce, and made a matter of record ; but all elections by the people shall be by secret official ballot, furnished by public author- ity to the voters at the polls, and marked by each voter in private at the polls, and then and there deposited. The word "elections" in this section includes the decision of questions submitted to the voters, as well as the choice of officers by them. The first General Assembly held after the adoption of this Constitution shall pass all necessary laws to enforce this provision, and shall provide that persons illiter- ate, blind, or in any way disabled, may have their ballots marked as herein required.
SEC. 148. Not more than one election each year shall be held in this State or in any city, town, district, or county thereof, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution. All elections of State, county, city, town, or district officers shall be held on the first Tues- day after the first Monday in November ; but no officer of any city, town, or county, or of any subdivision thereof, except members of municipal legislative boards, shall be elected in the same year in which members of the House of Representatives of the United States are elected. District or State officers, including members of the Gen- eral Assembly, may be elected in the same year in which members of the House of Representatives of the United States are elected. All elections by the people shall be between the hours of six o'clock A.M. and seven o'clock P.M., but the General Assembly may change said hours, and all officers of any election shall be residents and voters in the precinct in which they act. The General Assembly shall provide by law that all employers shall allow employees, under reasonable regu- lations, at least four hours on election days, in which to cast their votes.
SEC. 149. Voters, in all cases except treason, felony, breach or surety of the peace, or violation of the election laws, shall be privi- leged from arrest during their attendance at elections, and while they are going to and returning therefrom.
SEC. 150. Every person shall be disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit for the term for which he shall have been elected, who shall be convicted of having given, or consented to the giving, offer, or promise of, any money or other thing of value, to procure his election, or to influence the vote of any voter at such election ; and if any corporation shall, directly or indirectly, offer, promise, or give, or shall authorize, directly or indirectly, any person to offer, promise, or give, any money or any thing of value to influence the result of any election in this State, or the vote of any voter authorized
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to vote therein, or who shall afterward reimburse or compensate, in any manner whatever, any person who shall have offered, promised, or given any money or other thing of value to influence the result of any election or the vote of any such voter, such corporation, if organ- ized under the laws of this Commonwealth, shall, on conviction there- of, forfeit its charter and all rights, privileges, and immunities there- under ; and if chartered by another State, and doing business in this State, whether by license or upon mere sufferance, such corporation, upon conviction of either of the offenses aforesaid, shall forfeit all right to carry on any business in this State : and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide for the enforcement of the pro. visions of this section. All persons shall be excluded from office whe have been, or shall hereafter be, convicted of a felony, or of such high misdemeanor as may be prescribed by law ; but such disability may be removed by pardon of the governor. The privilege of free suf- frage shall be supported by laws regulating elections, and prohibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon, from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practices.
SEC. 151. The General Assembly shall provide suitable means for depriving of office any person who, to procure his nomination or elec- tion, has, in his canvass or election, been guilty of any unlawful use of money, or other thing of value, or has been guilty of fraud, intimi- dation, bribery, or any other corrupt practice ; and he shall be held responsible for acts done by others with his authority, or ratified by him.
SEC. 152. Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, vacan- cies in all elective offices shall be filled by election or appointment, as follows : if the unexpired term will end at the next succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment for the remainder of the term ; if the unexpired term will not end at the next succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, and if three months inter- vene before said succeeding annual election at which either city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment until said election, and then said vacancy shall be filled by election for the remainder of the term; if three months do not intervene between the happening of said vacancy and the next succeeding election at which city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected, the office shall be filled by appointment until the second succeeding annual election at which city, town, county, district, or State officers are to be elected ; and then, if any part of the term remains unexpired, the office shall be filled by elec- tion until the regular time for the election of officers to fill said offices. Vacancies in all offices for the State at large, or for districts larger than a county, shall be filled by appointment of the governor : all other appointments shall be made as may be prescribed by law. No person shall ever be appointed a member of the General Assembly, but vacancies therein may be filled at a special election, in such man- ner as may be provided by law.
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SEC. 153. Except as otherwise herein expressly provided, the Gen- eral Assembly shall have power to provide by general law for the manner of voting, for ascertaining the result of elections and making due returns thereof, for issuing certificates or commissions to all per- sons entitled thereto, and for the trial of contested elections.
SEC. 154. The General Assembly shall prescribe such laws as may be necessary for the restriction or prohibition of the sale or gift of spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors on election days.
SEC. 155. The provisions of sections one hundred and forty-five to one hundred and fifty-four, inclusive, shall not apply to the election of school trustees and other common school district elections. Said elections shall be regulated by the General Assembly, except as other- wise provided in this Constitution.
MUNICIPALITIES.
SEC. 156. The cities and towns of this Commonwealth, for the purposes of their organization and government, shall be divided into six classes. The organization and powers of each class shall be defined and provided for by general laws, so that all municipal cor- porations of the same class shall possess the same powers, and be subject to the same restrictions. To the first class shall belong cities with a population of one hundred thousand or more ; to the second class, cities with a population of twenty thousand or more, and less than one hundred thousand ; to the third class, cities with a popula- tion of eight thousand or more, and less than twenty thousand ; to the fourth class, cities and towns with a population of three thou- sand or more, and less than eight thousand ; to the fifth class, cities and towns with a population of one thousand or more, and less than three thousand ; to the sixth class, towns with a population of less than one thousand. The General Assembly shall assign the cities and towns of the Commonwealth to the classes to which they respec- tively belong, and change assignments made as the population of said cities and towns may increase or decrease, and, in the absence of other satisfactory information as to their population, shall be gov- erned by the last preceding Federal census in so doing ; but no city or town shall be transferred from one class to another, except in pur- suance of a law previously enacted and providing therefor. The General Assembly, by a general law, shall provide how towns may be organized, and enact laws for the government of such towns until the same are assigned to one or the other of the classes above named ; but such assignment shall be made at the first session of the General Assembly after the organization of said town or city.
SEC. 157. The tax rate of cities, towns, counties, taxing districts, and other municipalities, for other than school purposes, shall not at any time exceed the following rates upon the value of the taxable property therein : viz., for all towns or cities having a population of fifteen thousand or more, one dollar and fifty cents on the hundred dollars ; for all towns or cities having less than fifteen thousand and not less than ten thousand, one dollar on the hundred dollars ; for all
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towns or cities having less than ten thousand, seventy-five cents on the hundred dollars ; and for counties and taxing districts, fifty cents on the hundred dollars ; unless it should be necessary to enable such city, town, county, or taxing district to pay the interest on, and pro- vide a sinking fund for the extinction of, indebtedness contracted before the adoption of this Constitution. No county, city, town, tax- ing district, or other municipality shall be authorized or permitted to become indebted, in any manner or for any purpose, to an amount exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year, without the assent of two-thirds of the voters thereof, voting at an election to be held for that purpose ; and any indebtedness con- tracted in violation of this section shall be void. Nor shall such con- tract be enforceable by the person with whom made ; nor shall such municipality ever be authorized to assume the same.
SEC. 158. The respective cities, towns, counties, taxing districts, and municipalities shall not be authorized or permitted to incur in- debtedness to an amount, including existing indebtedness, in the aggregate exceeding the following-named maximum percentages on the value of the taxable property therein, to be estimated by the as- sessment next before the last assessment previous to the incurring of the indebtedness : viz., cities of the first and second classes, and of the third class having a population exceeding fifteen thousand, ten per centum ; cities of the third class having a population of less than fifteen thousand, and cities and towns of the fourth class, five per centum ; cities and towns of the fifth and sixth classes, three per centum ; and counties, taxing districts, and other municipalities, two per centum : provided any city, town, county, taxing district, or other municipality may contract an indebtedness in excess of such limitations, when the same has been authorized under laws in force prior to the adoption of this Constitution, or when necessary for the completion of and pay- ment for a public improvement undertaken and not completed and paid for at the time of the adoption of this Constitution ; and provided, further, if, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, the aggregate indebtedness, bonded or floating, of any city, town, county, taxing district, or other municipality, including that which it has been or may be authorized to contract as herein provided, shall exceed the limit herein prescribed, then no such city or town shall be authorized or permitted to increase its indebtedness in an amount exceeding two per centum, and no such county, taxing district, or other municipality, in an amount exceeding one per centum, in the aggregate upon the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained as herein pro- vided, until the aggregate of its indebtedness shall have been reduced below the limit herein fixed ; and thereafter it shall not exceed the limit, unless in case of emergency the public health or safety should so require. Nothing herein shall prevent the issue of renewal bonds, or bonds to fund the floating indebtedness of any city, town, county, taxing district, or other municipality.
SEC. 159. Whenever any county, city, town, taxing district, or other municipality is authorized to contract an indebtedness, it shall be re- quired at the same time to provide for the collection of an annual tax
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sufficient to pay the interest on said indebtedness, and to create a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof, within not more than forty years from the time of contracting the same.
SEC. 160. The mayor or chief executive, police judges, members of legislative boards or councils of towns and cities, shall be elected by the qualified voters thereof : provided the mayor or chief executive and police judges of the towns of the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes may be appointed or elected as provided by law. The terms of office of mayors or chief executives and police judges shall be four years, and until their successors shall be qualified ; and of members of legisla- tive boards, two years. When any city of the first or second class is divided into wards or districts, members of legislative boards shall be elected at large by the qualified voters of said city, but so selected that an equal proportion thereof shall reside in each of the said wards or districts ; but when in any city of the first, second, or third class, there are two legislative boards, the less numerous shall be selected from and elected by the voters at large of said city ; but other officers of towns or cities shall be elected by the qualified voters therein, or appointed by the local authorities thereof, as the General Assembly may, by a general law, provide ; but when elected by the voters of a town or city, their terms of office shall be four years, and until their successors shall be qualified. No mayor or chief executive or fiscal officer of any city of the first or second class, after the expiration of the term of office to which he has been elected under this Constitution, "Fiscal officer" shall not
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