Page:Idaho State Constitution 2017.pdf/11

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SECTION 8. SESSIONS OF LEGISLATURE. The sessions of the legislature shall be held annually at the capital of the state, commencing on the second Monday of January of each year, unless a different day shall have been appointed by law, and at other times when convened by the governor.

SECTION 9. POWERS OF EACH HOUSE. Each house when assembled shall choose its own officers; judge of the election, qualifications and returns of its own members, determine its own rules of proceeding, and sit upon its own adjournments; but neither house shall, without the concurrence of the other, adjourn for more than three (3) days, nor to any other place than that in which it may be sitting.

SECTION 10. QUORUM, ADJOURNMENTS AND ORGANIZATION. A majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as such house may provide. A quorum being in attendance, if either house fail to effect an organization within the first four (4) days thereafter, the members of the house so failing shall be entitled to no compensation from the end of the said four (4) days until an organization shall have been effected.

SECTION 11. EXPULSION OF MEMBERS. Each house may, for good cause shown, with the concurrence of two-thirds (2/3) of all the members, expel a member.

SECTION 12. SECRET SESSIONS PROHIBITED. The business of each house, and of the committee of the whole shall be transacted openly and not in secret session.

SECTION 13. JOURNAL. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall at the request of any three (3) members present, be entered on the journal.

SECTION 14. ORIGIN AND AMENDMENT OF BILLS. Bills may originate in either house, but may be amended or rejected in the other, except that bills for raising revenue shall originate in the house of representatives.

SECTION 15. MANNER OF PASSING BILLS. No law shall be passed except by bill, nor shall any bill be put upon its final passage until the same, with the amendments thereto, shall have been printed for the use of the members; nor shall any bill become a law unless the same shall have been read on three several days in each house previous to the final vote thereon: provided, in case of urgency, two-thirds (2/3) of the house where such bill may be pending may, upon a vote of the yeas and nays, dispense with this provision. On the final passage of all bills, they shall be read at length, section by section, and the vote shall be by yeas and nays upon each bill separately, and shall be entered upon the journal; and no bill shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of the members present.

SECTION 16. UNITY OF SUBJECT AND TITLE. Every act shall embrace but one subject and matters properly connected therewith, which subject shall be expressed in the title; but if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be embraced in the title.

SECTION 17. TECHNICAL TERMS TO BE AVOIDED. Every act or joint resolution shall be plainly worded, avoiding as far as practicable the use of technical terms.

SECTION 18. AMENDMENTS TO BE PUBLISHED IN FULL. No act shall be revised or amended by mere reference to its title, but the section as amended shall be set forth and published at full length.

SECTION 19. LOCAL AND SPECIAL LAWS PROHIBITED. The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say:
 * Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace and constables.
 * For the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors.
 * Regulating the practice of the courts of justice.
 * Providing for a change of venue in civil or criminal actions.
 * Granting divorces.
 * Changing the names of persons or places.
 * Authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, working on, or vacating roads, highways, streets, alleys, town plats, parks, cemeteries, or any public grounds not owned by the state.
 * Summoning and impaneling grand and trial juries, and providing for their compensation.
 * Regulating county and township business, or the election of county and