expressed in its title; nor shall any law be revived or amended
with reference to its title, 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 Assembly at which it is enacted, unless in
case of an emergency (which emergency shall be expressed in the
body of the bill), the General Assembly 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 Assembly, 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 Assembly for the trial of
impeachments.
SEC. 55. The General Assembly shall by law apportion the State
into districts, corresponding with the number of representatives
to which it may be entitled 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 Constitution,
shall be prescribed by law, and the General Assembly may declare
the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant where no
provision is made for that purpose in this Constitution.
SEC. 57. The General Assembly shall have power, by a two-thirds
vote, to remove disabilities incurred under section Twenty-three,
of Article Two, of this Constitution, 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 Assembly shall not pass 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 Assembly shall not prescribe any
religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or
advantages on any sect or denomination, or pass 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 Assembly shall not grant a charter of
incorporation to any church or religious denomination, but may
secure the title 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 Assembly.
SEC. 62. The General Assembly 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 Assembly 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 Assembly may regulate the exercise
by courts of the right to punish for contempt. The General
Assembly 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 assessment and collection of taxes, except as to
animals which the General Assembly may deem dangerous to the
farming interests.
6. Extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes.
7. Exempting property from taxation.
8. Remitting, releasing, postponing, or diminishing any obligation
or liability of any person, corporation, or association, to the
State or to any political subdivision thereof.
9. Refunding money lawfully paid into the treasury of the State or
the treasury of any political subdivision thereof.
10. Granting from the treasury of the State, or granting or
authorizing to be granted from the treasury of any political
subdivision thereof, any extra compensation to any public officer,
servant, agent, or contractor.
11. For conducting elections or designating the places of voting.
12. Regulating labor, trade, mining or manufacturing, or the rate
of interest on money.
13. Granting any pension or pensions.
14. Creating, increasing, or decreasing, or authorizing to be
created, increased, or decreased, the salaries, fees, percentages,
or allowances of public officers during the term for which they
are elected or appointed.
15. Declaring streams navigable, or authorizing the construction
of booms or dams therein, or the removal of obstructions
therefrom.
16. Affecting or regulating fencing or the boundaries of land, or
the running at large of stock.
17. Creating private corporations, or amending, renewing or
extending the charters thereof.
18. Granting to any private corporation, association, or
individual any special or exclusive right, privilege or immunity.
19. Naming or changing the name of any private corporation or
association.
20. Remitting the forfeiture of the charter of any private
corporation except upon the condition that such corporation shall
thereafter hold its charter subject to the provisions of this
Constitution and the laws passed in pursuance thereof.
SEC. 64. In all the cases enumerated in the last section, and in
every other case which, in its judgment, may be provided for by
general laws, the General Assembly shall enact general laws. Any
general law shall be subject to amendment or repeal, but the
amendment or partial repeal thereof shall not operate directly or
indirectly to enact, and shall not have the effect of the
enactment of a special, private, or local law.
No general or special law shall surrender or suspend the right and
power of the State, or any political subdivision thereof, to tax
corporations or corporate property, except as authorized by
Article Thirteen. No private corporation, association, or
individual shall be specially exempted from the operation of any
general law, nor shall its operation be suspended for the benefit
of any private corporation, association, or individual.
SEC. 65, The General Assembly may by general laws, confer upon the
boards of supervisors of counties, and the councils of cities and
towns, such powers of local and special legislation, as it may
from time to time deem expedient, not inconsistent with the
limitations contained in this Constitution.
SEC. 66. The Clerk of the House of Delegates shall be Keeper of
the Rolls of the State but shall receive no compensation from the
State for his services as such.
The General Assembly by general law shall prescribe the number of
employees of the Senate and House of Delegates, including the
clerks thereof, and fix their compensation at a per diem for the
time actually employed in the discharge of their duties.
SEC. 67. The General Assembly shall not make any appropriation of
public funds, of personal property, or of any real estate, to any
church, or sectarian society, association, or institution of any
kind whatever, which is entirely or partly, directly or
indirectly, controlled by any church or sectarian society; nor
shall the General Assembly make any like appropriation to any
charitable institution, which is not owned or controlled by the
State; except that it may, in its discretion, make appropriations
to non-sectarian institutions for the reform of youthful
criminals; but nothing herein contained shall prohibit the General
Assembly from authorizing counties, cities, or towns to make such
appropriations to any charitable institution or association.
SEC. 68. The General Assembly shall, at each regular session,
appoint a standing committee, consisting of two members of the
Senate and three members of the House of Delegates, which shall be
known as the Auditing Committee. Such committee shall annually, or
oftener in its discretion, examine the books and accounts of the
First Auditor, the State Treasurer, the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, and other executive officers at the seat of
government whose duties pertain to auditing or accounting for the
state revenue, report the result of its investigations to the
Governor, and cause the same to be published in two newspapers of
general circulation in the State. The Governor shall, at the
beginning of each session, submit said reports to the General
Assembly for appropriate action. The committee may sit during the
recess of the General Assembly, receive such compensation as may
be prescribed by law, and employ one or more accountants to assist
in its investigations.
ARTICLE V.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.
SEC. 69. The chief executive power of the State shall be vested in
a Governor. He shall hold office for a term of four years, to
commence on the first day of February next succeeding his
election, and be ineligible to the same office for the term next
succeeding that for which he was elected, and to any other office
during his term of service.
SEC. 70. The Governor shall be elected by the qualified voters of
the State at the time and place of choosing members of the General
Assembly. Returns of the election shall be transmitted, under
seal, by the proper officers, to the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, who shall deliver them to the Speaker of the House
of Delegates on the first day of the next session of the General
Assembly. The Speaker of the House of Delegates shall, within one
week thereafter, in the presence of a majority of the Senate and
of the House of Delegates, open the returns, and the votes shall
then be counted. The person having the highest number of votes
shall be declared elected; but if two or more shall have the
highest and an equal number of votes, one of them shall lie chosen
Governor by the joint vote of the two houses of the General
Assembly. Contested elections for Governor shall be decided by a
like vote, and the mode of proceeding in such cases shall be
prescribed by law.
SEC. 71. No person except a citizen of the United States shall be
eligible to the office of Governor; and if such person be of
foreign birth, he must have been a citizen of the United States
for ten years next preceding his election; nor shall any person be
eligible to that office unless he shall have attained the age of
thirty years, and have been a resident of the State for five years
next preceding his election.
SEC. 72. The Governor shall reside at the seat of government;
shall receive five thousand dollars for each year of his service,
and while in office shall receive no other emolument from this or
any other government.
SEC. 73. The Governor shall take care that the laws be faithfully
executed; communicate to the General Assembly, at every session,
the condition of the State; recommend to its consideration such
measures as he may deem expedient, and convene the General
Assembly on application of two-thirds of the members of both
houses thereof, or when, in his opinion, the interest of the State
may require. He shall be commander-in-chief of the land and naval
forces of the State; have power to embody the militia to repel
invasion, suppress insurrection and enforce the execution of the
laws; conduct, either in person or in such manner as shall be
prescribed by law, all intercourse with other and foreign states;
and, during the recess of the General Assembly, shall have power
to suspend from office for misbehavior, incapacity, neglect of
official duty, or acts performed without due authority of law, all
executive officers at the seat of government except the
Lieutenant-Governor; but, in any case in which this power is so
exercised, the Governor shall report to the General Assembly, at
the beginning of the next session thereof, the fact of such
suspension and the cause therefor, whereupon the General Assembly
shall determine whether such officer shall be restored or finally
removed; and the Governor shall have power, during the recess of
the General Assembly, to appoint, pro tempore, successors to all
officers so suspended, and to fill, pro tempore, vacancies in all
offices of the State for the filling of which the Constitution and
laws make no other provision; but his appointments to such
vacancies shall be by commissions to expire at the end of thirty
days after the commencement of the next session of the General
Assembly. He shall have power to remit fines and penalties in such
cases, and under such rules and regulations, as may be prescribed
by law, and except when the prosecution has been carried on by the
House of Delegates, to grant reprieves and pardons after
conviction; to remove political disabilities consequent upon
conviction for offences committed prior or subsequent to the
adoption of this Constitution, and to commute capital punishment;
but he shall communicate to the General Assembly, at each session,
particulars of every case of fine or penalty remitted, of reprieve
or pardon granted, and of punishment commuted, with his reasons
for remitting, granting, or commuting the same.
SEC. 74. The Governor may require information in writing, under
oath, from the officers of the executive department and
superintendents of state institutions upon any subject relating to
the duties of their respective offices and institutions; and he
may inspect at any time their official books, accounts and
vouchers, and ascertain the condition of the public funds in their
charge, and in that connection may employ accountants. He may
require the opinion in writing of the Attorney-General upon any
question of law affecting the official duties of the Governor.
SEC. 75. Commissions and grants shall run in the name of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, and be attested by the Governor, with
the seal of the Commonwealth annexed.
SEC. 76. Every bill which shall have passed the Senate and House
of Delegates, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the
Governor. If he approve, he shall sign it; but, if not, he may
return it with his objections to the house in which it originated,
which shall enter the objections at large on its journal and
proceed to reconsider the same. If, after such consideration, two-
thirds of the members present, which two-thirds shall include a
majority of the members elected to that house, shall agree to pass
the bill it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the
other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if
approved by two-thirds of all the members present, which two-
thirds shall include a majority of the members elected to that
house, it shall become a law, notwithstanding the objections. The
Governor shall have the power to veto any particular item or items
of an appropriation bill, but the veto shall not affect the item
or items to which he does not object. The item or items objected
to shall not take effect except in the manner heretofore provided
in this section as to bills returned to the General Assembly
without his approval. If he approve the general purpose of any
bill, but disapprove any part or parts thereof, he may return it,
with recommendations for its amendment, to the house in which it
originated, whereupon the same proceedings shall be had in both
houses upon the bill and his recommendations in relation to its
amendment, as is above provided in relation to a bill which he
shall have returned without his approval, and with his objections
thereto: provided, that if after such reconsideration, both
houses, by a vote of a majority of the members present in each,
shall agree to amend the bill in accordance with his
recommendations in relation thereto, or either house by such vote
shall fail or refuse to so amend it, then, and in either case the
bill shall be again sent to him, and he may act upon it as if it
were then before him for the first time. But in all the cases
above set forth the votes of both houses shall be determined by
ayes and noes, and the names of the members voting for and against
the bill, or item or items of an appropriation bill, shall be
entered on the journal of each house. If any bill shall not be
returned by the Governor within five days (Sunday excepted) after
it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law in
like manner as if he had signed it, unless the General Assembly
shall, by final adjournment, prevent such return; in which case it
shall be a law if approved by the Governor in the manner and to
the extent above provided, within ten days after such adjournment,
but not otherwise.
SEC. 77. A Lieutenant-Governor shall be elected at the same time
and for the same term as the Governor, and his qualifications and
the manner and ascertainment of his election, in all respects,
shall be the same.
SEC. 78. In case of the removal of the Governor from office, or of
his death, failure to qualify, resignation, removal from State, or
inability to discharge the powers and duties of the office, the
said office, with its compensation, shall devolve upon the
Lieutenant-Governor; and the General Assembly shall provide by law
for the discharge of the executive functions in other necessary
cases.
SEC. 79. The Lieutenant-Governor shall be president of the Senate,
but shall have no vote except in case of an equal division; and
while acting as such, shall receive a compensation equal to that
allowed to the Speaker of the House of Delegates.
SEC. 80. A Secretary of the Commonwealth shall be elected by the
qualified voters of the State at the same time and for the same
term as the Governor; and the fact of his election shall be
ascertained as in the case of the Governor. He shall keep a daily
record of the official acts of the Governor, which shall be signed
by the Governor and attested by the Secretary, and, when required,
he shall lay the same, and any papers, minutes and vouchers
pertaining to his office, before either house of the General
Assembly. He shall discharge such other duties as may be
prescribed By law. All fees received by the Secretary of the
Commonwealth shall be paid into the treasury monthly.
SEC. 81. A State Treasurer shall be elected by the qualified
voters of the State at the same time and for the same term as the
Governor; and the fact of his election shall be ascertained in the
same manner. His powers and duties shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 82. An Auditor of Public Accounts shall be elected by the
joint vote of the two houses of the General Assembly for the term
of four years. His powers and duties shall be prescribed by law.
SEC. 83. The salary of each officer of the Executive Department,
except in those cases where the salary is determined by this
Constitution, shall be fixed by law; and the salary of no such
officer shall be increased or diminished during the term for which
he shall have been elected or appointed.
SEC. 84. The General Assembly shall provide by law for the
establishment and maintenance of an efficient system of checks and
balances between the officers at the seat of government entrusted
with the collection, receipt, custody, or disbursement of the
revenues of the State.
SEC. 85. All State officers, and their deputies, assistants or
employees, charged with the collection, custody, handling or
disbursement of public funds, shall be required to give bond for
the faithful performance of such duties; the amount of such bond
in each case, and the manner in which security shall be furnished,
to be specified and regulated by law.
SEC. 86. The General Assembly shall have power to establish and
maintain a Bureau of Labor and Statistics, under such regulations
as may be prescribed by law.
ARTICLE VI.
JUDICIARY DEPARTMENT.
SEC. 87. The Judiciary Department shall consist of a Supreme Court
of Appeals, circuit courts, city courts, and such other courts as
are hereinafter authorized. The jurisdiction of these tribunals
and the judges thereof, except so far as conferred by this
Constitution, shall be regulated by law.
SEC. 88. The Supreme Court of Appeals shall consist of five
judges, any three of whom may hold a court. It shall have original
jurisdiction in cases of habeas corpus, mandamus, and prohibition;
but in all other cases, in which it shall have jurisdiction, it
shall have appellate jurisdiction only.
Subject to such reasonable rules, as may be prescribed by law, as
to the course of appeal, the limitation as to time, the security
required, if any, the granting or refusing of appeals, and the
procedure therein, it shall, by virtue of this Constitution, have
appellate jurisdiction in all cases involving the
constitutionality of a law as being repugnant to the Constitution
of this State or of the United States, or involving the life or
liberty of any person; and it shall also have appellate
jurisdiction in such other cases, within the limits hereinafter
denned, as may be prescribed by law; but no appeal shall be
allowed to the Commonwealth in any case involving the life or
liberty of a person, except that an appeal by the Commonwealth may
be allowed by law in any case involving the violation of a law
relating to the state revenue. No bond shall be required of any
accused person as a condition of appeal, but a supersedeas bond
may be required where the only punishment imposed in the court
below is a fine.