These clauses prevent governments from passing laws that target a person, business, or small group.
Constitutions
Alaska
The legislature shall pass no local or special act if a general act can be made applicable. Whether a general act can be made applicable shall be subject to judicial determination. Local acts necessitating appropriations by a political subdivision may not become effective unless approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon in the subdivision affected.
Alabama
The legislature shall not pass a special, private, or local law in any of the following cases: (1) Granting a divorce; (2) Relieving any minor of the disabilities of nonage; (3) Changing the name of any corporation, association, or individual; (4) Providing for the adoption or legitimizing of any child; (5) Incorporating a city, town, or village; (6) Granting a charter to any corporation, association, or individual; (7) Establishing rules of descent or distribution; (8) Regulating the time within which a civil or criminal action may be begun; (9) Exempting any individual, private corporation, or association from the operation of any general law; (10) Providing for the sale of the property of any individual or estate; (11) Changing or locating a county seat; (12) Providing for a change of venue in any case; (13) Regulating the rate of interest; (14) Fixing the punishment of crime; (15) Regulating either the assessment or collection of taxes, except in connection with the readjustment, renewal, or extension of existing municipal indebtedness created prior to the ratification of the Constitution of eighteen hundred and seventy-five; (16) Giving effect to an invalid will, deed, or other instrument; (17) Authorizing any county, city, town, village, district, or other political subdivision of a county, to issue bonds or other securities unless the issuance of said bonds or other securities shall have been authorized before the enactment of such local or special law, by a vote of the duly qualified electors of such county, township, city, town, village, district, or other political subdivision of a county, at an election held for such purpose, in the manner that may be prescribed by law; provided, the legislature may, without such election, pass special laws to refund bonds issued before the date of the ratification of this Constitution; (18) Amending, confirming, or extending the charter of any private or municipal corporation, or remitting the forfeiture thereof; provided, this shall not prohibit the legislature from altering or rearranging the boundaries of the city, town, or village; (19) Creating, extending, or impairing any lien; (20) Chartering or licensing any ferry, road, or bridge; (21) Increasing the jurisdiction and fees of justices of the peace or the fees of constables; (22) Establishing separate school districts; (23) Establishing separate stock districts; (24) Creating, increasing, or decreasing fees, percentages, or allowances of public officers; (25) Exempting property from taxation or from levy or sale; (26) Exempting any person from jury, road, or other civil duty; (27) Donating any lands owned by or under control of the state to any person or corporation; (28) Remitting fines, penalties, or forfeitures; (29) Providing for the conduct of elections or designating places of voting, or changing the boundaries of wards, precincts, or districts, except in the event of the organization of new counties, or the changing of the lines of old counties; (30) Restoring the right to vote to persons convicted of infamous crimes, or crimes involving moral turpitude; (31) Declaring who shall be liners between precincts or between counties. The legislature shall pass general laws for the cases enumerated in this section, provided that nothing in this section or article shall affect the right of the legislature to enact local laws regulating or prohibiting the liquor traffic; but no such local law shall be enacted unless notice shall have been given as required in section 106 of this Constitution. .01 The Legislature by local law may provide in any municipality with a city board of education for the conducting of an authorizing referendum election regarding changing the city board of education to an elected city board of education. The Legislature by local law may authorize the governing body of any municipality with a city board of education, upon a recorded majority vote of the governing body, to call and conduct an authorizing referendum election regarding changing the city board of education of that municipality to an elected city board of education. If a majority of the qualified electors voting in an authorizing referendum election called in either of the preceding manners vote in favor of an elected city board of education, the Legislature, from time to time, by local law may provide for the election of a city board of education in that municipality. Such local law or laws may include, but are not limited to, providing for termination of the terms of office of members of the existing city board of education; the composition of the city board of education; initial and succeeding terms of office, including staggered terms; election districts and at-large membership; qualifications; powers, duties, and responsibilities; vacancies; and compensation. Any general law, municipal classification law, or local law providing for or authorizing an elected city board of education in any municipality enacted within the last 1,095 days prior to the ratification date of this amendment is validated and confirmed. Any local referendum conducted pursuant to such general law, municipal classification law, or local law, or any combination of such laws, in which a majority of the qualified electors of the municipality voting voted in favor of an elected city board of education, is also validated and confirmed and that local referendum is considered as an authorizing referendum election for purposes of this amendment. Notwithstanding Acts 97-679 and 97-616 of the 1997 Regular Session, initial elections for the members of the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education shall occur at the regularly scheduled municipal elections in the year 2001. Public hearings shall be held by the legislative delegation and amendments may be prepared and enacted by the Legislature which are deemed necessary and appropriate by the local delegation for any local legislation, including Acts 97-679 and 97-616 of the 1997 Regular Session, which are validated and confirmed by this amendment. The results of any authorizing referendum election called pursuant to this amendment shall be reported to the State Board of Education which shall maintain a continuing record of those results for public inspection. It is the intent of the Legislature that this amendment supersede any other provision of this constitution which may be construed as being in conflict with this amendment. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this proposed amendment shall not apply to any municipality with a population exceeding 125,000 according to the most recent federal census. .02 I. The members of the city board of education of any municipality in the state with a population exceeding 125,000 shall be elected by the qualified electors of the municipality in which the city board of education is located. II. This amendment shall apply to a municipality with a population exceeding 125,000 if, at the time this amendment is submitted to a statewide vote, a majority of the qualified electors voting on the amendment in the respective municipality vote in favor of the amendment. III. Upon the application of this amendment to a respective municipality, either at the time of the ratification of this amendment or at a later time, the Legislature shall, by local law, provide for the dissolution of any existing nonelected city board of education in an applicable municipality and for the date the elected city board of education shall be constituted. The existing city board of education shall continue to function until the date of dissolution. Additionally, the Legislature, by local law, may provide for the termination of the terms of office of members of an existing city board of education; the composition of the elected city board of education; initial and succeeding terms of office, including staggered terms; election districts and at-large membership; qualifications; powers, duties, and responsibilities; vacancies; and compensation. IV. If a municipality comes within the application of this constitutional amendment after the date of ratification of this constitutional amendment, the provisions of this constitutional amendment shall only apply to that municipality if such provisions are approved by a majority vote of the qualified electors of the municipality voting at a special referendum called and conducted pursuant to local law, adopted from time to time by the Legislature.
No special, private, or local law, except a law fixing the time of holding courts, shall be enacted in any case which is provided for by a general law, or when the relief sought can be given by any court of this state; and the courts, and not the legislature, shall judge as to whether the matter of said law is provided for by a general law, and as to whether the relief sought can be given by any court; nor shall the legislature indirectly enact any such special, private, or local law by the partial repeal of a general law.
No special, private, or local law shall be passed on any subject not enumerated in section 104 of this Constitution, except in reference to fixing the time of holding courts, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been published, without cost to the state, in the county or counties where the matter or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall state the substance of the proposed law and be published at least once a week for four consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in such county or counties or if there is no newspaper published therein, then by posting the said notice for two consecutive weeks at five different places in the county or counties prior to the introduction of the bill; and proof that said notice has been given shall be exhibited to each house of the legislature through a certification by the clerk of the house or secretary of the senate that notice and proof was attached to the subject local legislation and the notice and proof shall be attached to the original copy of the subject bill and shall be filed in the department of archives and history where it shall constitute a public record. The courts shall pronounce void every special, private, or local law which the journals do not affirmatively show was passed in accordance with the provisions of this section. This amendment shall be self-executing, and no enabling legislation shall be necessary. .01 Any statute that was otherwise valid and constitutional that was enacted before January 13, 1978, by the legislature of this state and was a general act of local application on a population basis, that applied only to a certain county or counties or a municipality or municipalities of this state, shall not be declared invalid or unconstitutional by any court of this state because it was not properly advertised in compliance with section 106 of this Constitution. All such population based acts shall forever apply only to the county or counties or municipality or municipalities to which they applied on January 13, 1978, and no other, despite changes in population. The population based acts referred to above shall only be amended by acts which are properly advertised and passed by the legislature in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
The legislature shall not, by a special, private, or local law, repeal or modify any special, private, or local law except upon notice being given and shown as provided in the last preceding section.
The operation of a general law shall not be suspended for the benefit of any individual, private corporation, or association; nor shall any individual, private corporation or association be exempted from the operation of any general law except as in this article otherwise provided.
The legislature shall pass general laws under which local and private interests shall be provided for and protected.
A general law is a law which in its terms and effect applies either to the whole state, or to one or more municipalities of the state less than the whole in a class. A general law applicable to such a class of municipalities shall define the class on the basis of criteria reasonably related to the purpose of the law, provided that the legislature may also enact and change from time to time a general schedule of not more than eight classes of municipalities based on population according to any designated federal decennial census, and general laws for any purpose may thereafter be enacted for any such class. Any law heretofore enacted which complies with the provisions of this section shall be considered a general law. No general law which at the time of its enactment applies to only one municipality of the state shall be enacted, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been given and shown as provided in Section 106 of this Constitution for special, private or local laws; provided, that such notice shall not be deemed to constitute such law a local law. A special or private law is one which applies to an individual, association or corporation. A local law is a law which is not a general law or a special or private law. Act No. 79-263 (House Bill No. 68) entitled "An Act to establish eight classes of municipalities, by population, based on the 1970 Federal decennial census" approved June 28, 1979, and each and every Act of the legislature thereafter enacted referred or relating to a class of municipalities as established in said Act No. 79-263 are hereby in all things ratified, approved, validated and confirmed as of the date of their enactment, any provision or provisions of the Constitution of Alabama, as amended, to the contrary notwithstanding.
No bill introduced as a general law in either house of the legislature shall be so amended on its passage as to become a special, private or local law. .01 The legislature shall not hereafter by general, special or local law authorize the state highway department or any other agency of the state of Alabama, other than a court of county commissioners, board of revenue or like county governing body, to assume responsibility for the construction, repair or maintenance of all county roads or bridges within a county unless the assumption of such responsibility by the state highway department or other agency shall be approved by a vote of the duly qualified electors of the county in which such roads lie at an election held for such purpose, in the manner that may be prescribed by law. Provided, the state highway department, or other state agency may engage in the construction, repair or maintenance of a county road or bridge upon written agreement signed by the director and a majority of the members of the county governing body; and provided further that the legislature is not prohibited from authorizing the highway director or other state agency to designate certain routes or roads within a county as a part of the state highway system. .02 The legislature may pass laws to provide for the termination of alimony upon the remarriage of the spouse receiving the alimony or upon such spouse living openly or cohabiting with a member of the opposite sex. Such laws may be made to apply retrospectively. .03 No law, whether general, special or local, whose purpose or effect is to provide for a new or increased expenditure of county funds held or disbursed by the county governing body shall become effective as to any county of this state until the first day of the fiscal year next following the passage of such law. The foregoing notwithstanding, a law, whether general, special or local, whose purpose or effect is to provide for a new or increased expenditure of county funds held or disbursed by the county governing body, shall become effective according to its own terms as any other law if: (1) such law is approved by a resolution duly adopted by and spread upon the minutes of the county governing body of the county affected thereby; or (2) such law (or other law or laws which specifically refer to such law) provides the respective county governing bodies with new or additional revenues sufficient to fund such new or increased expenditures. .04 No law, whether general, special or local, whose purpose or effect is to provide for a new or increased expenditure of municipal funds held or disbursed by the municipal governing body shall become effective as to any municipality of this state until the first day of the fiscal year next following the passage of such law. The foregoing notwithstanding, a law, whether general, special or local, whose purpose or effect is to provide for a new or increased expenditure of municipal funds held or disbursed by the municipal governing body, shall become effective according to its own terms as any other law if: (1) Such law is approved by a resolution duly adopted by and spread upon the minutes of the municipal governing body of the municipality affected thereby; or (2) Such law (or other law or laws which specifically refer to such law) provides the respective municipal governing bodies with new or additional revenues sufficient to fund such new or increased expenditures. .05 (a) No general law, or state executive order whose purpose or effect is to require a new or increased expenditure of funds held or disbursed by the governing body of a municipality or county, or an instrumentality thereof, or a city or county board of education shall become effective as to any municipality or county, or an instrumentality thereof, or a city or county board of education until approved by an ordinance enacted, or a resolution adopted, by the governing authority of the affected municipality, county, instrumentality, or board of education or until, and only as long as, the Legislature appropriates funds for the purpose to the affected municipality, county, instrumentality, or board and only to the extent and amount that the funds are provided, or until a law provides for a local source of revenue within the municipality, county, instrumentality, or board for the stated purpose and the affected municipality, county, instrumentality, or board is authorized by ordinance or resolution to levy and collect the revenue and only to the extent and amount of the revenue. (b) This amendment shall not apply to: (1) A local law as defined in Article IV, Section 110, Constitution of Alabama of 1901. (2) An act defining a new crime or amending the definition of an existing crime. (3) An act, statute, executive order enacted, promulgated, or adopted and effective prior to January 6, 1999, which by its provisions requires expenditures by the county or municipality at any time after that date. (4) An act enacted, or state executive order promulgated or adopted to comply with a federal mandate, only to the extent of the federal mandate. (5) An act adopted or enacted by two-thirds of those voting in each house of the Legislature and any rule or regulation adopted to implement that act or adopted pursuant thereto. (6) An act determined by the Legislative Fiscal Office to have an aggregate insignificant fiscal impact on affected municipalities, counties, instrumentalities, or boards. For purposes of this subsection, the phrase "aggregate insignificant fiscal impact" shall mean any impact less than $50,000 annually. (7) An act of general application prescribing the minimum compensation for public officials. (8) An act, statute, administrative rule, or other provision or portion thereof addressing compensation, benefits, or due process of any employee of a board education. (c) For the purposes of this amendment, the phrase board of education shall include the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, the Alabama School of Fine Arts, and the Alabama High School of Mathematics and Science. .06 No moneys derived from any fees, excises, or license taxes, levied by the state, relating to registration, operation, or use of vehicles upon the public highways except a vehicle-use tax imposed in lieu of a sales tax, and no moneys derived from any fee, excises, or license taxes, levied by the state, relating to fuels used for propelling such vehicles except pump taxes, shall be expended for other than cost of administering such laws, statutory refunds and adjustments allowed therein, cost of construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of public highways and bridges, costs of highway rights-of-way, payment of highway obligations, the cost of traffic regulation, and the expense of enforcing state traffic and motor vehicle laws. The provisions of this amendment shall not apply to any such fees, excises, or license taxes now levied by the state for school purposes for this whole state or for any county or city board of education therein; and the legislature may provide for the manufacture, distribution and use on private passenger or pleasure motor vehicles of personalized license plates or tags, bearing some special letters, figures, mark or badge of distinction or personal prestige in lieu of the regular license plates or tags, and if it does so, the legislature must also require that such tags may be procured only by payment of a fee or charge, in addition to the regular fee, excise or license tax for the registration, operation or use of such motor vehicles upon the highways. The moneys derived from the additional charge made for such special or distinctive license plates or tags, in excess of the cost of the manufacture and distribution of such plates or tags, may be used in such manner as the legislature prescribes. .07 1. Any provision of the constitution or other law that imposes a maximum age restriction for the appointment, election, or service of an appointed or elected official, with the exception of persons elected or appointed to a judicial office pursuant to Section 155, is repealed. 2. The Legislature may not enact any law imposing a maximum age restriction for the appointment, election, or service of any appointed or elected official. .08 The implementation date for any bill enacted by the Legislature in a calendar year in which a general election is to be held and relating to the conduct of the general election shall be at least six months before the general election.
Arkansas
The General Assembly shall not pass any local or special law, changing the venue in criminal cases; changing the names of persons, or adopting or legitimating children; granting divorces; vacating roads, streets or alleys.
In all cases where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted; nor shall the operation of any general law be suspended by the legislature for the benefit of any particular individual, corporation or association; nor where the courts have jurisdiction to grant the powers, or the privileges, or the relief asked for.
No local or special bill shall be passed, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been published, in the locality where the matter or the thing to be affected may be situated; which notice shall be, at least, thirty days prior to the introduction into the General Assembly of such bill, and in the manner to be provided by law. The evidence of such notice having been published, shall be exhibited in the General Assembly before such act shall be passed.
The General Assembly shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers, except for charitable, educational, penal or reformatory purposes, where the corporations created are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the state.
Arizona
No local or special laws shall be enacted in any of the following cases, that is to say: 1. Granting divorces. 2. Locating or changing county seats. 3. Changing rules of evidence. 4. Changing the law of descent or succession. 5. Regulating the practice of courts of justice. 6. Limitation of civil actions or giving effect to informal or invalid deeds. 7. Punishment of crimes and misdemeanors. 8. Laying out, opening, altering, or vacating roads, plats, streets, alleys, and public squares. 9. Assessment and collection of taxes. 10. Regulating the rate of interest on money. 11. The conduct of elections. 12. Affecting the estates of deceased persons or of minors. 13. Granting to any corporation, association, or individual, any special or exclusive privileges, immunities, or franchises. 14. Remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures. 15. Changing names of persons or places. 16. Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace. 17. Incorporation of cities, towns, or villages, or amending their charters. 18. Relinquishing any indebtedness, liability, or obligation to this State. 19. Summoning and empanelling of juries. 20. When a general law can be made applicable.
Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special acts. Laws relating to corporations may be altered, amended, or repealed at any time, and all corporations doing business in this state may, as to such business, be regulated, limited, and restrained by law.
Municipal corporations shall not be created by special laws, but the legislature, by general laws, shall provide for the incorporation and organization of cities and towns and for the classification of such cities and towns in proportion to population, subject to the provisions of this article.
California
(a) All laws of a general nature have uniform operation. (b) A local or special statute is invalid in any case if a general statute can be made applicable.
Colorado
The general assembly shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say; for granting divorces; laying out, opening, altering or working roads or highways; vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys and public grounds; locating or changing county seats; regulating county or township affairs; regulating the practice in courts of justice; regulating the jurisdiction and duties of police magistrates; changing the rules of evidence in any trial or inquiry; providing for changes of venue in civil or criminal cases; declaring any person of age; for limitation of civil actions or giving effect to informal or invalid deeds; summoning or impaneling grand or petit juries; providing for the management of common schools; regulating the rate of interest on money; the opening or conducting of any election, or designating the place of voting; the sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or others under disability; the protection of game or fish; chartering or licensing ferries or toll bridges; remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentage or allowances of public officers; changing the law of descent; granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks; granting to any corporation, association or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. In all other cases, where a general law can be made applicable no special law shall be enacted.
No charter of incorporation shall be granted, extended, changed or amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as are or may be under the control of the state; but the general assembly shall provide by general laws for the organization of corporations hereafter to be created.
Connecticut
The general assembly shall by general law delegate such legislative authority as from time to time it deems appropriate to towns, cities and boroughs relative to the powers, organization, and form of government of such political subdivisions. The general assembly shall from time to time by general law determine the maximum terms of office of the various town, city and borough elective offices. After July 1, 1969, the general assembly shall enact no special legislation relative to the powers, organization, terms of elective offices or form of government of any single town, city or borough, except as to (a) borrowing power, (b) validating acts, and (c) formation, consolidation or dissolution of any town, city or borough, unless in the delegation of legislative authority by general law the general assembly shall have failed to prescribe the powers necessary to effect the purpose of such special legislation.
Delaware
The General Assembly shall not pass any local or special law relating to fences; the straying of livestock; ditches; the creation or changing the boundaries of school districts; or the laying out, opening, alteration, maintenance or vacation, in whole or in part of any road, highway, street, lane or alley; provided, however, that the General Assembly may by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House pass laws relating to the laying out, opening, alteration or maintenance of any road or highway which forms a continuous road or highway extending through at least a portion of the three counties of the State. No road, highway or street, intended to be dedicated to public use and maintained at public expense, shall be constructed except in conformance with standards adopted by the agency charged with construction, reconstruction or maintenance of such road, highway or street. Any road or street constructed solely for private use shall only be maintained at State expense after it has been constructed or reconstructed according to the standards established by the agency charged with the duty of maintaining such roads or streets.
Florida
No special law shall be passed unless notice of intention to seek enactment thereof has been published in the manner provided by general law. Such notice shall not be necessary when the law, except the provision for referendum, is conditioned to become effective only upon approval by vote of the electors of the area affected.
(a) There shall be no special law or general law of local application pertaining to: (1) election, jurisdiction or duties of officers, except officers of municipalities, chartered counties, special districts or local governmental agencies; (2) assessment or collection of taxes for state or county purposes, including extension of time therefor, relief of tax officers from due performance of their duties, and relief of their sureties from liability; (3) rules of evidence in any court; (4) punishment for crime; (5) petit juries, including compensation of jurors, except establishment of jury commissions; (6) change of civil or criminal venue; (7) conditions precedent to bringing any civil or criminal proceedings, or limitations of time therefor; (8) refund of money legally paid or remission of fines, penalties or forfeitures; (9) creation, enforcement, extension or impairment of liens based on private contracts, or fixing of interest rates on private contracts; (10) disposal of public property, including any interest therein, for private purposes; (11) vacation of roads; (12) private incorporation or grant of privilege to a private corporation; (13) effectuation of invalid deeds, wills or other instruments, or change in the law of descent; (14) change of name of any person; (15) divorce; (16) legitimation or adoption of persons; (17) relief of minors from legal disabilities; (18) transfer of any property interest of persons under legal disabilities or of estates of decedents; (19) hunting or fresh water fishing; (20) regulation of occupations which are regulated by a state agency; or (21) any subject when prohibited by general law passed by a three-fifths vote of the membership of each house. Such law may be amended or repealed by like vote. (b) In the enactment of general laws on other subjects, political subdivisions or other governmental entities may be classified only on a basis reasonably related to the subject of the law.
Georgia
(a) Laws of a general nature shall have uniform operation throughout this state and no local or special law shall be enacted in any case for which provision has been made by an existing general law, except that the General Assembly may by general law authorize local governments by local ordinance or resolution to exercise police powers which do not conflict with general laws. (b) No population bill, as the General Assembly shall define by general law, shall be passed. No bill using classification by population as a means of determining the applicability of any bill or law to any political subdivision or group of political subdivisions may expressly or impliedly amend, modify, supersede, or repeal the general law defining a population bill. (c) No special law relating to the rights or status of private persons shall be enacted.
The General Assembly may provide by law for the procedure for considering local legislation. The title of every local bill and every resolution intended to have the effect of local law shall be read at least once before such bill or resolution shall be voted upon; and no such bill or resolution shall be voted upon prior to the second day following the day of introduction.
The General Assembly shall provide by law for the advertisement of notice of intention to introduce local bills.
Hawaii
The power of the State to act in the general welfare shall never be impaired by the making of any irrevocable grant of special privileges or immunities.
Iowa
All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation; the general assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens.
The general assembly shall not pass local or special laws in the following cases: For the assessment and collection of taxes for state, county, or road purposes; For laying out, opening, and working roads or highways; For changing the names of persons; For the incorporation of cities and towns; For vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, or public squares; For locating or changing county seats. In all the cases above enumerated, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the state; and no law changing the boundary lines of any county shall have effect until upon being submitted to the people of the counties affected by the change, at a general election, it shall be approved by a majority of the votes in each county, cast for and against it.
No corporation shall be created by special laws; but the general assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created, except as hereinafter provided.
No act of the general assembly, authorizing or creating corporations or associations with banking powers, nor amendments thereto shall take effect, or in any manner be in force, until the same shall have been submitted, separately, to the people, at a general or special election, as provided by law, to be held not less than three months after the passage of the act, and shall have been approved by a majority of all the electors voting for and against it at such election.
Idaho
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 township officers. For the assessment and collection of taxes. Providing for and conducting elections, or designating the place of voting. Affecting estates of deceased persons, minors, or other persons under legal disabilities. Extending the time for collection of taxes. Giving effect to invalid deeds, leases or other instruments. Refunding money paid into the state treasury. Releasing or extinguishing, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or obligation of any person or corporation in this state, or any municipal corporation therein. Declaring any person of age, or authorizing any minor to sell, lease or incumber his or her property. Legalizing as against the state the unauthorized or invalid act of any officer. Exempting property from taxation. Changing county seats, unless the law authorizing the change shall require that two-thirds of the legal votes cast at a general or special election shall designate the place to which the county seat shall be changed; provided, that the power to pass a special law shall cease as long as the legislature shall provide for such change by general law; provided further, that no special law shall be passed for any one county oftener than once in six years. Restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous crimes. Regulating the interest on money. Authorizing the creation, extension or impairing of liens. Chartering or licensing ferries, bridges or roads. Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures. Providing for the management of common schools. Creating offices or prescribing the powers and duties of officers in counties, cities, townships, election districts, or school districts, except as in this constitution otherwise provided. Changing the law of descent or succession. Authorizing the adoption or legitimization of children. For limitation of civil or criminal actions. Creating any corporation. Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentages, or allowances of public officers during the term for which said officers are elected or appointed.
No charter of incorporation shall be granted, extended, changed or amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal, or reformatory corporations as are or may be, under the control of the state; but the legislature shall provide by general law for the organization of corporations hereafter to be created: provided, that any such general law shall be subject to future repeal or alteration by the legislature.
Illinois
The General Assembly shall pass no special or local law when a general law is or can be made applicable. Whether a general law is or can be made applicable shall be a matter for judicial determination.
Indiana
The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws: Providing for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors; Regulating the practice in courts of justice; Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases; Granting divorces; Changing the names of persons; Providing for laying out, opening, and working on, highways, and for the election or appointment of supervisors; Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public squares; Summoning and empaneling grand and petit juries, and providing for their compensation; Regulating county and township business; Regulating the election of county and township officers and their compensation; Providing for the assessment and collection of taxes for State, county, township, or road purposes; Providing for the support of common schools, or the preservation of school funds; Relating to fees or salaries, except that the laws may be so made as to grade the compensation of officers in proportion to the population and the necessary services required; Relating to interest on money; Providing for opening and conducting elections of State, county, or township officers, and designating the places of voting; Providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees.
In all the cases enumerated in the preceding section, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the State.
Corporations, other than banking, shall not be created by special act, but may be formed under general laws.
Provision may be made, by general law, for bringing suit against the State; but no special law authorizing such suit to be brought, or making compensation to any person claiming damages against the State, shall ever be passed.
Kansas
Uniform operation of laws of a general nature. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation throughout the state: Provided, The legislature may designate areas in counties that have become urban in character as "urban areas" and enact special laws giving to any one or more of such counties or urban areas such powers of local government and consolidation of local government as the legislature may deem proper.
The legislature shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers. Corporations may be created under general laws; but all such laws may be amended or repealed.
Kentucky
The General Assembly shall not pass local or special acts concerning any of the following subjects, or for any of the following purposes, namely: First: To regulate the jurisdiction, or the practice, or the circuits of the courts of justice, or the rights, powers, duties or compensation of the officers thereof; but the practice in circuit courts in continuous session may, by a general law, be made different from the practice of circuit courts held in terms. Second: To regulate the summoning, impaneling or compensation of grand or petit jurors. Third: To provide for changes of venue in civil or criminal causes. Fourth: To regulate the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, or to remit fines, penalties or forfeitures. Fifth: To regulate the limitation of civil or criminal causes. Sixth: 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. Seventh: 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. Eighth: To change the law of descent, distribution or succession. Ninth: To authorize the adoption or legitimation of children. Tenth: To grant divorces. Eleventh: To change the names of persons. Twelfth: To give effect to invalid deeds, wills or other instruments. Thirteenth: To legalize, except as against the Commonwealth, the unauthorized or invalid act of any officer or public agent of the Commonwealth, or of any city, county or municipality thereof. Fourteenth: To refund money legally paid into the State Treasury. Fifteenth: To authorize or to regulate the levy, the assessment or the collection of taxes, or to give any indulgence or discharge to any assessor or collector of taxes, or to his sureties. Sixteenth: To authorize the opening, altering, maintaining or vacating of roads, highways, streets, alleys, town plats, cemeteries, graveyards, or public grounds not owned by the Commonwealth. Seventeenth: 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 regulate tolls; to regulate fencing or the running at large of stock. Eighteenth: To create, increase or decrease fees, percentages or allowances to public officers, or to extend the time for the collection thereof, or to authorize officers to appoint deputies. Nineteenth: To give any person or corporation the right to lay a railroad track or tramway, or to amend existing charters for such purposes. Twentieth: 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. Twenty-first: To regulate the rate of interest. Twenty-second: To authorize the creation, extension, enforcement, impairment or release of liens. Twenty-third: To provide for the protection of game and fish. Twenty-fourth: To regulate labor, trade, mining or manufacturing. Twenty-fifth: To provide for the management of common schools. Twenty-sixth: To locate or change a county seat. Twenty-seventh: To provide a means of taking the sense of the people of any city, town, district, precinct or county, whether they wish to authorize, regulate or prohibit therein the sale of vinous, spirituous or malt liquors, or alter the liquor laws. Twenty-eighth: Restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous crimes. Twenty-ninth: In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted.
The General Assembly shall not indirectly enact any special or local act by the repeal in part of a general act, or by exempting 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 provided 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 General Assembly, unless otherwise expressly provided in this Constitution.
All men, when they form a social compact, are equal; and no grant of exclusive, separate public emoluments or privileges shall be made to any man or set of men, except in consideration of public services; but no property shall be exempt from taxation except as provided in this Constitution, and every grant of a franchise, privilege or exemption, shall remain subject to revocation, alteration or amendment.
Louisiana
(A) Prohibitions. Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, the legislature shall not pass a local or special law: (1) For the holding and conducting of elections, or fixing or changing the place of voting. (2) Changing the names of persons; authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children or the emancipation of minors; affecting the estates of minors or persons under disabilities; granting divorces; changing the law of descent or succession; giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds or to any illegal disposition of property. (3) Concerning any civil or criminal actions, including changing the venue in civil or criminal cases, or regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or changing the rules of evidence in any -9- judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts, or providing or changing methods for the collection of debts or the enforcement of judgments, or prescribing the effects of judicial sales. (4) Authorizing the laying out, opening, closing, altering, or maintaining of roads, highways, streets, or alleys; relating to ferries and bridges, or incorporating bridge or ferry companies, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form boundaries between this and any other state; authorizing the constructing of street passenger railroads in any incorporated town or city. (5) Exempting property from taxation; extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes; relieving an assessor or collector of taxes from the performance of his official duties or of his sureties from liability; remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures; refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury. (6) Regulating labor, trade, manufacturing, or agriculture; fixing the rate of interest. (7) Creating private corporations, or amending, renewing, extending, or explaining the charters thereof; granting to any private corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive right, privilege, or immunity. (8) Regulating the management of parish or city public schools, the building or repairing of parish or city schoolhouses, and the raising of money for such purposes. (9) Legalizing the unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer, employee, or agent of the state, its agencies, or political subdivisions. (10) Defining any crime. (B) Additional Prohibition. The legislature shall not indirectly enact special or local laws by the partial repeal or suspension of a general law.
(A) Except as otherwise provided in this Section, no local or special law shall be enacted unless notice of the intent to introduce a bill to enact such a law has been published on two separate days, without cost to the state, in the official journal of the locality where the matter to be affected is situated. The last day of publication shall be at least thirty days prior to introduction of the bill. The notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law, and every such bill shall recite that notice has been given. (B) No local or special law relative to the creation of a special district, the primary purpose of which includes aiding in crime prevention and adding to the security of district residents by providing for an increased presence of law enforcement personnel in the district or otherwise promoting and encouraging security in the district, shall be enacted unless notice of the intent to introduce such bill has been published on three separate days, without cost to the state, in the official journal of the locality where the special district is to be situated. The last day of publication shall be at least thirty days prior to introduction of the bill. The notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law, and shall specifically disclose whether the governing authority of the special district would be authorized by the contemplated law to impose and collect a parcel fee within the district, whether the parcel fee will be imposed or may be increased without an election, and the maximum amount of the parcel fee if a maximum amount is set forth in the contemplated law. Every such bill shall recite that the required notice has been given.
The legislature shall provide by general law for the incorporation, consolidation, merger, and government of municipalities. No local or special law shall create a municipal corporation or amend, modify, or repeal a municipal charter. However, a special legislative charter existing on the effective date of this constitution may be amended, modified, or repealed by local or special law.
Massachusetts
No man, nor corporation, or association of men, have any other title to obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those of the community, than what arises from the consideration of services rendered to the public; and this title being in nature neither hereditary, nor transmissible to children, or descendants, or relations by blood, the idea of a man born a magistrate, lawgiver, or judge, is absurd and unnatural.
The general court shall have the power to act in relation to cities and towns, but only by general laws which apply alike to all cities or to all towns, or to all cities and towns, or to a class of not fewer than two, and by special laws enacted (1) on petition filed or approved by the voters of a city or town, or the mayor and city council, or other legislative body, of a city, or the town meeting of a town, with respect to a law relating to that city or town; (2) by a two-thirds vote of each branch of the general court following a recommendation by the governor; (3) to erect and constitute metropolitan or regional entities, embracing any two or more cities or towns or cities and towns, or established with other than existing city or town boundaries, for any general or special public purpose or purposes, and to grant to these entities such powers, privileges and immunities as the general court shall deem necessary or expedient for the regulation and government thereof; or (4) solely for the incorporation or dissolution of cities or towns as corporate entities, alteration of city or town boundaries, and merger or consolidation of cities and towns, or any of these matters. Subject to the foregoing requirements, the general court may provide optional plans of city or town organization and government under which an optional plan may be adopted or abandoned by majority vote of the voters of the city or town voting thereon at a city or town election; provided, that no town of fewer than twelve thousand inhabitants may be authorized to adopt a city form of government, and no town of fewer than six thousand inhabitants may be authorized to adopt a form of town government providing for town meeting limited to such inhabitants of the town as may be elected to meet, deliberate, act and vote in the exercise of the corporate powers of the town. This section shall apply to every city and town whether or not it has adopted a charter pursuant to section three.
All special laws relating to individual cities or towns shall remain in effect and have the force of an existing city or town charter, but shall be subject to amendment or repeal through the adoption, revision or amendment of a charter by a city or town in accordance with the provisions of sections three and four and shall be subject to amendment or repeal by laws enacted by the general court in conformity with the powers reserved to the general court by section eight.
Maryland
The General Assembly shall not pass local, or special Laws, in any of the following enumerated cases, viz.: For extending the time for the collection of taxes; granting divorces; changing the name of any person; providing for the sale of real estate, belonging to minors, or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians or trustees; giving effect to informal, or invalid deeds or wills; refunding money paid into the State Treasury, or releasing persons from their debts, or obligations to the State, unless recommended by the Governor, or officers of the Treasury Department. And the General Assembly shall pass no special Law, for any case, for which provision has been made, by an existing General Law. The General Assembly, at its first Session after the adoption of this Constitution, shall pass General Laws, providing for the cases enumerated in this section, which are not already adequately provided for, and for all other cases, where a General Law can be made applicable.
Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special Act, except for municipal purposes and except in cases where no general laws exist, providing for the creation of corporations of the same general character, as the corporation proposed to be created; and any act of incorporation passed in violation of this section shall be void. All charters granted, or adopted in pursuance of this section, and all charters heretofore granted and created, subject to repeal or modification, may be altered, from time to time, or be repealed; Provided, nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to Banks, or the incorporation thereof. The General Assembly shall not alter or amend the Charter, of any Corporation existing at the time of the adoption of this Article, or pass any other general or special law for the benefit of such Corporation, except upon the condition that such Corporation shall surrender all claim to exemption from taxation or from the repeal or modification of its Charter, and that such Corporation shall thereafter hold its Charter subject to the provisions of this Constitution; and any Corporation chartered by this State which shall accept, use, enjoy, or in any wise avail itself of any rights, privileges or advantages that may hereafter be granted or conferred by any general or special Act, shall be conclusively presumed to have thereby surrendered any exemption from taxation to which it may be entitled under its Charter, and shall be thereafter subject to taxation as if no such exemption has been granted by its Charter.
Maine
The Legislature shall, from time to time, provide, as far as practicable, by general laws, for all matters usually appertaining to special or private legislation.
Corporations shall be formed under general laws, and shall not be created by special Acts of the Legislature, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where the objects of the corporation cannot otherwise be attained; and, however formed, they shall forever be subject to the general laws of the State.
Michigan
The legislature shall pass no local or special act in any case where a general act can be made applicable, and whether a general act can be made applicable shall be a judicial question. No local or special act shall take effect until approved by two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in each house and by a majority of the electors voting thereon in the district affected. Any act repealing local or special acts shall require only a majority of the members elected to and serving in each house and shall not require submission to the electors of such district.
The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to and serving in each house of the legislature shall be required for the appropriation of public money or property for local or private purposes.
Minnesota
In all cases when a general law can be made applicable, a special law shall not be enacted except as provided in section 2. Whether a general law could have been made applicable in any case shall be judicially determined without regard to any legislative assertion on that subject. The legislature shall pass no local or special law authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, vacating or maintaining of roads, highways, streets or alleys; remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; changing the names of persons, places, lakes or rivers; authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children; changing the law of descent or succession; conferring rights on minors; declaring any named person of age; giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds, or affecting the estates of minors or persons under disability; granting divorces; exempting property from taxation or regulating the rate of interest on money; creating private corporations, or amending, renewing, or extending the charters thereof; granting to any private corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever or authorizing public taxation for a private purpose. The inhibitions of local or special laws in this section shall not prevent the passage of general laws on any of the subjects enumerated.
Every law which upon its effective date applies to a single local government unit or to a group of such units in a single county or a number of contiguous counties is a special law and shall name the unit or, in the latter case, the counties to which it applies. The legislature may enact special laws relating to local government units, but a special law, unless otherwise provided by general law, shall become effective only after its approval by the affected unit expressed through the voters or the governing body and by such majority as the legislature may direct. Any special law may be modified or superseded by a later home rule charter or amendment applicable to the same local government unit, but this does not prevent the adoption of subsequent laws on the same subject. The legislature may repeal any existing special or local law, but shall not amend, extend or modify any of the same except as provided in this section.
Missouri
The general assembly shall not pass any local or special law: (1) authorizing the creation, extension or impairment of liens; (2) granting divorces; (3) changing the venue in civil or criminal cases; (4) regulating the practice or jurisdiction of, or changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts, sheriffs, commissioners, arbitrators or other tribunals, or providing or changing methods for the collection of debts, or the enforcing of judgments, or prescribing the effect of judicial sales of real estate; (5) summoning or empaneling grand or petit juries; (6) for limitation of civil actions; (7) remitting fines, penalties and forfeitures or refunding money legally paid into the treasury; (8) extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes, or otherwise relieving any assessor or collector of taxes from the due performance of their duties, or their securities from liability; (9) changing the law of descent or succession; (10) giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds; (11) affecting the estates of minors or persons under disability; (12) authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children; (13) declaring any named person of age; (14) changing the names of persons or places; (15) vacating town plats, roads, streets or alleys; (16) relating to cemeteries, graveyards or public grounds not of the state; (17) authorizing the laying out, opening, altering or maintaining roads, highways, streets or alleys; (18) for opening and conducting elections, or fixing or changing the place of voting; (19) locating or changing county seats; (20) creating new townships or changing the boundaries of townships or school districts; (21) creating offices, prescribing the powers and duties of officers in, or regulating the affairs of counties, cities, townships, election or school districts; (22) incorporating cities, towns, or villages or changing their charters; (23) regulating the fees or extending the powers of aldermen, magistrates or con- stables; (24) regulating the management of public schools, the building or repairing of schoolhouses, and the raising of money for such purposes; (25) legalizing the unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer or agent of the state or of any county or municipality; (26) fixing the rate of interest; (27) regulating labor, trade, mining or manufacturing; (28) granting to any corporation, association or individual any special or exclusive right, privilege or immunity, or to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down a railroad track; (29) relating to ferries or bridges, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form the boundary between this and any other state; (30) where a general law can be made applicable, and whether a general law could have been made applicable is a judicial question to be judicially determined without regard to any legislative assertion on that subject.
The general assembly shall not indirectly enact a special or local law by the partial repeal of a general law; but laws repealing local or special acts may be passed.
No local or special law shall be passed unless a notice, setting forth the intention to apply therefor and the substance of the contemplated law, shall have been published in the locality where the matter or thing to be affected is situated at least thirty days prior to the introduction of the bill into the general assembly and in the manner provided by law. Proof of publication shall be filed with the general assembly before the act shall be passed and the notice shall be recited in the act.
Mississippi
No special or local law shall be enacted for the benefifit of individuals or corporations, in cases which are or can be provided for by general law, or where the relief sought can be given by any court of this State; nor shall the operation of any general law be suspended by the Legislature for the benefifit of any individual or private corporation or association, and in all cases where a general law can be made applicable, and would be advantageous, no special law shall be enacted.
The Legislature shall pass general laws, under which local and private interest shall be provided for and protected, and under which cities and towns may be chartered and their charters amended, and under which corporations may be created, organized, and their acts of incorporation altered; and all such laws shall be subject to repeal or amendment.
There shall be appointed in each house of the Legislature a standing committee on local and private legislation; the house committee to consist of seven representatives, and the Senate committee of five Senators. No local or private bill shall be passed by either House until it shall have been referred to said committee thereof, and shall have been reported back with a recommendation in writing that it do pass, stating affirmatively the reasons therefor, and why the end to be accomplished should not be reached by a general law, or by a proceeding in court; or if the recommendation of the committee be that the bill do not pass, then it shall not pass the House to which it is so reported unless it be voted for by a majority of all members elected thereto. If a bill is passed in conformity to the requirements hereof, other than such as are prohibited in the next section, the courts shall not, because of its local, special, or private nature, refuse to enforce it.
The Legislature shall not pass local, private, or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, but such matters shall be provided for only by general laws, viz.: (a) Granting divorces; (b) Changing the names of persons, places, or corporations; (c) Providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal cases; (d) Regulating the rate of interest on money; (e) Concerning the settlement or administration of any estate, or the sale or mortgage of any property, of any infant, or of a person of unsound mind, or of any deceased person; (f) The removal of the disability of infancy; (g) Granting to any person, corporation, or association the right to have any ferry, bridge, road, or fish-trap; (h) Exemption of property from taxation or from levy or sale; (i) Providing for the adoption or legitimation of children; (j) Changing the law of descent and distribution; (k) Exempting any person from jury, road, or other civil duty (and no person shall be exempted therefrom by force of any local or private law); ( l ) Laying out, opening, altering, and working roads and highways; (m) Vacating any road or highway, town plat, street, alley, or public grounds; (n) Selecting, drawing, summoning, or empaneling grand or petit juries; (o) Creating, increasing, or decreasing the fees, salary, or emoluments of any public officer; (p) Providing for the management or support of any private or common school, incorporating the same, or granting such school any privileges; (q) Relating to stock laws, water-courses, and fences; (r) Conferring the power to exercise the right of eminent domain, or granting to any person, corporation, or association the right to lay down railroad tracks or street-car tracks in any other manner than that prescribed by general law; (s) Regulating the practice in courts of justice; (t) Providing for the creation of districts for the election of justices of the peace and constables; and (u) Granting any lands under control of the state to any person or corporation.
Montana
The legislature shall not pass a special or local act when a general act is, or can be made, applicable.
(1) The people may enact laws by initiative on all matters except appropriations of money and local or special laws. (2) Initiative petitions must contain the full text of the proposed measure, shall be signed by at least five percent of the qualified electors in each of at least one-third of the legislative representative districts and the total number of signers must be at least five percent of the total qualified electors of the state. Petitions shall be filed with the secretary of state at least three months prior to the election at which the measure will be voted upon. (3) The sufficiency of the initiative petition shall not be questioned after the election is held.
North Carolina
No person or set of persons is entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community but in consideration of public services.
(1) Prohibited subjects. The General Assembly shall not enact any local, private, or special act or resolution: (a) Relating to health, sanitation, and the abatement of nuisances; (b) Changing the names of cities, towns, and townships; (c) Authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing of highways, streets, or alleys; (d) Relating to ferries or bridges; (e) Relating to non-navigable streams; (f) Relating to cemeteries; (g) Relating to the pay of jurors; (h) Erecting new townships, or changing township lines, or establishing or changing the lines of school districts; (i) Remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures, or refunding moneys legally paid into the public treasury; (j) Regulating labor, trade, mining, or manufacturing; (k) Extending the time for the levy or collection of taxes or otherwise relieving any collector of taxes from the due performance of his official duties or his sureties from liability; (l) Giving effect to informal wills and deeds; (m) Granting a divorce or securing alimony in any individual case; (n) Altering the name of any person, or legitimating any person not born in lawful wedlock, or restoring to the rights of citizenship any person convicted of a felony. (2) Repeals. Nor shall the General Assembly enact any such local, private, or special act by the partial repeal of a general law; but the General Assembly may at any time repeal local, private, or special laws enacted by it. (3) Prohibited acts void. Any local, private, or special act or resolution enacted in violation of the provisions of this Section shall be void. (4) General laws. The General Assembly may enact general laws regulating the matters set out in this Section.
Whenever the General Assembly is directed or authorized by this Constitution to enact general laws, or general laws uniformly applicable throughout the State, or general laws uniformly applicable in every county, city and town, and other unit of local government, or in every local court district, no special or local act shall be enacted concerning the subject matter directed or authorized to be accomplished by general or uniformly applicable laws, and every amendment or repeal of any law relating to such subject matter shall also be general and uniform in its effect throughout the State. General laws may be enacted for classes defined by population or other criteria. General laws uniformly applicable throughout the State shall be made applicable without classification or exception in every unit of local government of like kind, such as every county, or every city and town, but need not be made applicable in every unit of local government in the State. General laws uniformly applicable in every county, city and town, and other unit of local government, or in every local court district, shall be made applicable without classification or exception in every unit of local government, or in every local court district, as the case may be. The General Assembly may at any time repeal any special, local, or private act.
No corporation shall be created, nor shall its charter be extended, altered, or amended by special act, except corporations for charitable, educational, penal, or reformatory purposes that are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the State; but the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the chartering, organization, and powers of all corporations, and for the amending, extending, and forfeiture of all charters, except those above permitted by special act. All such general acts may be altered from time to time or repealed. The General Assembly may at any time by special act repeal the charter of any corporation.
North Dakota
Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and a recorded vote on any question shall be taken at the request of one-sixth of those members present. No bill may become law except by a recorded vote of a majority of the members elected to each house, and the lieutenant governor is considered a member-elect of the senate when the lieutenant governor votes. No law may be enacted except by a bill passed by both houses, and no bill may be amended on its passage through either house in a manner which changes its general subject matter. No bill may embrace more than one subject, which must be expressed in its title; but a law violating this provision is invalid only to the extent the subject is not so expressed. Every bill must be read on two separate natural days, and the readings may be by title only unless a reading at length is demanded by one-fifth of the members present. No bill may be amended, extended, or incorporated in any other bill by reference to its title only, except in the case of definitions and procedural provisions. The presiding officer of each house shall sign all bills passed and resolutions adopted by the legislative assembly, and the fact of signing shall be entered at once in the journal. Every law, except as otherwise provided in this section, enacted by the legislative assembly during its eighty natural meeting days takes effect on August first after its filing with the secretary of state, or if filed on or after August first and before January first of the following year ninety days after its filing, or on a subsequent date if specified in the law unless, by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house, the legislative assembly declares it an emergency measure and includes the declaration in the Act. Every appropriation measure for support and maintenance of state departments and institutions and every tax measure that changes tax rates enacted by the legislative assembly take effect on July first after its filing with the secretary of state or on a subsequent date if specified in the law unless, by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house, the legislative assembly declares it an emergency measure and includes the declaration in the Act. An emergency measure takes effect upon its filing with the secretary of state or on a date specified in the measure. Every law enacted by a special session of the legislative assembly takes effect on a date specified in the Act. The legislative assembly shall enact all laws necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this constitution. Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, no local or special laws may be enacted, nor may the legislative assembly indirectly enact special or local laws by the partial repeal of a general law but laws repealing local or special laws may be enacted.
Nebraska
The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following cases, that is to say: For granting divorces. Changing the names of persons or places. Laying out, opening altering and working roads or highways. Vacating roads, Town plats, streets, alleys, and public grounds. Locating or changing County seats. Regulating County and Township offices. Regulating the practice of Courts of Justice. Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of Justices of the Peace, Police Magistrates and Constables. Providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal cases. Incorporating Cities, Towns and Villages, or changing or amending the charter of any Town, City, or Village. Providing for the election of Officers in Townships, incorporated Towns or Cities. Summoning or empaneling Grand or Petit Juries. Providing for the bonding of cities, towns, precincts, school districts or other municipalities. Providing for the management of Public Schools. The opening and conducting of any election, or designating the place of voting. The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors, or others under disability. The protection of game or fish. Chartering or licensing ferries, or toll bridges, remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures, creating, increasing and decreasing fees, percentage or allowances of public officers, during the term for which said officers are elected or appointed. Changing the law of descent. Granting to any corporation, association, or individual, the right to lay down railroad tracks, or amending existing charters for such purpose. Granting to any corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive privileges, immunity, or franchise whatever; Provided, that notwithstanding any other provisions of this Constitution, the Legislature shall have authority to separately define and classify loans and installment sales, to establish maximum rates within classifications of loans or installment sales which it establishes, and to regulate with respect thereto. In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted.
The Legislature shall provide by general law for the organization, regulation, supervision and general control of all corporations, and for the organization, supervision and general control of mutual and co-operative companies and associations, and by such legislation shall insure the mutuality and co-operative features and functions thereof. Foreign corporations transacting or seeking to transact business in this state shall be subject, under general law, to regulation, supervision and general control, and shall not be given greater rights or privileges than are given domestic corporations of a similar character. No corporations shall be created by special law, nor their charters be extended, changed or amended, except those corporations organized for charitable, educational, penal or reformatory purposes, which are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the state. The Legislature shall provide by law that in all elections for directors or managers of incorporated companies every stockholder owning voting stock shall have the right to vote in person or proxy for the number of such shares owned by him, for as many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected or to cumulate such shares and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number his shares shall equal, or to distribute them upon the same principal among as many candidates as he shall think fit, and such directors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner; Provided, that any mutual or cooperative company or association may, in its articles of incorporation, limit the number of shares of stock any stockholder may own, the transfer of such stock, and the right of each stockholder or member to one vote only in the meetings of such company or association. All general laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time, or repealed.
New Hampshire
Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.
New Jersey
The Legislature shall not pass any private, special or local laws: (1) Authorizing the sale of any lands belonging in whole or in part to a minor or minors or other persons who may at the time be under any legal disability to act for themselves. (2) Changing the law of descent. (3) Providing for change of venue in civil or criminal causes. (4) Selecting, drawing, summoning or empaneling grand or petit jurors. (5) Creating, increasing or decreasing the emoluments, term or tenure rights of any public officers or employees. (6) Relating to taxation or exemption therefrom. (7) Providing for the management and control of free public schools. (8) Granting to any corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. (9) Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks. (10) Laying out, opening, altering, constructing, maintaining and repairing roads or highways.
No general law shall embrace any provision of a private, special or local character.
No private, special or local law shall be passed unless public notice of the intention to apply therefor, and of the general object thereof, shall have been previously given. Such notice shall be given at such time and in such manner and shall be so evidenced and the evidence thereof shall be so preserved as may be provided by law.
New Mexico
The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following cases: regulating county, precinct or district affairs; the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace, police magistrates and constables; the practice in courts of justice; the rate of interest on money; the punishment for crimes and misdemeanors; the assessment or collection of taxes or extending the time of collection thereof; the summoning and impaneling of jurors; the management of public schools; the sale or mortgaging of real estate of minors or others under disability; the change of venue in civil or criminal cases. Nor in the following cases: granting divorces; laying out, opening, altering or working roads or highways, except as to state roads extending into more than one county, and military roads; vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys or public grounds; locating or changing county seats, or changing county lines, except in creating new counties; incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing or amending the charter of any city, town or village; the opening or conducting of any election or designating the place of voting; declaring any person of age; chartering or licensing ferries, toll bridges, toll roads, banks, insurance companies or loan and trust companies; remitting fines, penalties, forfeitures or taxes; or refunding money paid into the state treasury, or relinquishing, extending or extinguishing, in whole or in part, any indebtedness or liability of any person or corporation, to the state or any municipality therein; creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentages or allowances of public officers; changing the laws of descent; granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks or any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise, or amending existing charters for such purpose; changing the rules of evidence in any trial or inquiry; the limitation of actions; giving effect to any informal or invalid deed, will or other instrument; exempting property from taxation; restoring to citizenship any person convicted of an infamous crime; the adoption or legitimizing of children; changing the name of persons or places; and the creation, extension or impairment of liens. In every other case where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted.
The legislature shall not grant to any corporation or person, any rights, franchises, privileges, immunities or exemptions, which shall not, upon the same terms and under like conditions, inure equally to all persons or corporations; no exclusive right, franchise, privilege or immunity shall be granted by the legislature or any municipality in this state.
Nevada
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 of constables, and fixing their compensation; For the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors; Regulating the practice of courts of justice; Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases; Granting divorces; Changing the names of persons; Vacating roads, town plots, streets, alleys, and public squares; Summoning and impaneling grand and petit juries, and providing for their compensation; Regulating county and township business; Regulating the election of county and township officers; For the assessment and collection of taxes for state, county, and township purposes; Providing for opening and conducting elections of state, county, or township officers, and designating the places of voting; Providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities; Giving effect to invalid deeds, wills, or other instruments; Refunding money paid into the state treasury, or into the treasury of any county; Releasing the indebtedness, liability, or obligation of any corporation, association, or person to the state, or to any county, town, or city of this state; but nothing in this section shall be construed to deny or restrict the power of the legislature to establish and regulate the compensation and fees of county officers, to authorize and empower the boards of county commissioners of the various counties of the state to establish and regulate the compensation and fees of township officers in their respective counties, to establish and regulate the rates of freight, passage, toll, and charges of railroads, tollroads, ditch, flume, and tunnel companies incorporated under the laws of this state or doing business therein.
In all cases enumerated in the preceding section, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the State.
New York
The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases: Changing the names of persons. Laying out, opening, altering, working or discontinuing roads, highways or alleys, or for draining swamps or other low lands. Locating or changing county seats. Providing for changes of venue in civil or criminal cases. Incorporating villages. Providing for election of members of boards of supervisors. Selecting, drawing, summoning or empaneling grand or petit jurors. Regulating the rate of interest on money. The opening and conducting of elections or designating places of voting. Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentages or allowances of public officers, during the term for which said officers are elected or appointed. Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks. Granting to any private corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. Granting to any person, association, firm or corporation, an exemption from taxation on real or personal property. Providing for the building of bridges, except over the waters forming a part of the boundaries of the state, by other than a municipal or other public corporation or a public agency of the state.
No private or local bill, which may be passed by the legislature, shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
Corporations may be formed under general laws; but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws and special acts passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed.
The legislature shall, by general law, conform all charters of savings banks, savings and loan associations, or institutions for savings, to a uniformity of powers, rights and liabilities, and all charters hereafter granted for such corporations shall be made to conform to such general law, and to such amendments as may be made thereto. The legislature shall have no power to pass any act granting any special charter for banking purposes; but corporations or associations may be formed for such purposes under general laws.
Ohio
The General Assembly shall pass no special act conferring corporate powers.
Oklahoma
The Legislature shall not, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, pass any local or special law authorizing: The creation, extension, or impairing of liens; Regulating the affairs of counties, cities, towns, wards, or school districts; Changing the names of persons or places; Authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, or maintaining of roads, highways, streets, or alleys; Relating to ferries or bridges, or incorporating ferry or bridge companies, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form boundaries between this and any other state; Vacating roads, town plats, streets, or alleys; Relating to cemeteries, graveyards, or public grounds not owned by the State; Authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children; Locating or changing county seats; Incorporating cities, towns, or villages, or changing their charters; For the opening and conducting of elections, or fixing or changing the places of voting; Granting divorces; Creating offices, or prescribing the powers and duties of officers, in counties, cities, towns, election or school districts; Changing the law of descent or succession; Regulating the practice or jurisdiction of, or changing the rules of evidence in judicial proceedings or inquiry before the courts, justices of the peace, sheriffs, commissioners, arbitrators, or other tribunals, or providing or changing the methods for the collection of debts, or the enforcement of judgments or prescribing the effect of judicial sales of real estate; Regulating the fees, or extending the powers and duties of aldermen, justices of the peace, or constables; Regulating the management of public schools, the building or repairing of school houses, and the raising of money for such purposes; Fixing the rate of interest; Affecting the estates of minors, or persons under disability; Remitting fines, penalties and forfeitures, and refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury; Exempting property from taxation; Declaring any named person of age; Extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes, or otherwise relieving any assessor or collector of taxes from due performance of his official duties, or his securities from liability; Giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds; Summoning or impaneling grand or petit juries; For limitation of civil or criminal actions; For incorporating railroads or other works of internal improvements; Providing for change of venue in civil and criminal cases.
Laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation throughout the State, and where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted.
No special or local law shall be considered by the Legislature until notice of the intended introduction of such bill or bills shall first have been published for four consecutive weeks in some weekly newspaper published or of general circulation in the city or county affected by such law, stating in substance the contents thereof, and verified proof of such publication filed with the Secretary of State.
Municipal corporations shall not be created by special laws, but the Legislature, by general laws shall provide for the incorporation and organization of cities and towns and the classification of same in proportion to population, subject to the provisions of this article.
Oregon
The Legislative Assembly, shall not pass special or local laws, in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: Regulating the jurisdiction, and duties of justices of the peace, and of constables; For the punishment of Crimes, and Misdemeanors; Regulating the practice in Courts of Justice; Providing for changing the venue in civil, and Criminal cases; Granting divorces; Changing the names of persons; For laying, opening, and working on highways, and for the election, or appointment of supervisors; Vacating roads, Town plats, Streets, Alleys, and Public squares; Summoning and empanneling [sic] grand, and petit jurors; For the assessment and collection of Taxes, for State, County, Township, or road purposes; Providing for supporting Common schools, and for the preservation of school funds; In relation to interest on money; Providing for opening, and conducting the elections of State, County, and Township officers, and designating the places of voting; Providing for the sale of real estate, belonging to minors, or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees.
Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by the Legislative Assembly by special laws. The Legislative Assembly shall not enact, amend or repeal any charter or act of incorporation for any municipality, city or town. The legal voters of every city and town are hereby granted power to enact and amend their municipal charter, subject to the Constitution and criminal laws of the State of Oregon, and the exclusive power to license, regulate, control, or to suppress or prohibit, the sale of intoxicating liquors therein is vested in such municipality; but such municipality shall within its limits be subject to the provisions of the local option law of the State of Oregon.
Pennsylvania
The General Assembly shall pass no local or special law in any case which has been or can be provided for by general law and specifically the General Assembly shall not pass any local or special law: 1. Regulating the affairs of counties, cities, townships, wards, boroughs or school districts: 2. Vacating roads, town plats, streets or alleys: 3. Locating or changing county seats, erecting new counties or changing county lines: 4. Erecting new townships or boroughs, changing township lines, borough limits or school districts: 5. Remitting fines, penalties and forfeitures, or refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury: 6. Exempting property from taxation: 7. Regulating labor, trade, mining or manufacturing: 8. Creating corporations, or amending, renewing or extending the charters thereof: Nor shall the General Assembly indirectly enact any special or local law by the partial repeal of a general law; but laws repealing local or special acts may be passed.
No local or special bill shall be passed unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been published in the locality where the matter or the thing to be effected may be situated, which notice shall be at least 30 days prior to the introduction into the General Assembly of such bill and in the manner to be provided by law; the evidence of such notice having been published, shall be exhibited in the General Assembly, before such act shall be passed.
Rhode Island
The assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly shall be required to every bill appropriating the public money or property for local or private purposes.
The general assembly may provide by general law for the creation and control of corporations; provided, however, that no corporation shall be created with the power to exercise the right of eminent domain, or to acquire franchises in the streets and highways of towns and cities, except by special act of the general assembly upon a petition for the same, the pendency whereof shall be notified as may be required by law.
South Carolina
The General Assembly of this State shall not enact local or special laws concerning any of the following subjects or for any of the following purposes, to wit: I. To change the names of persons or places. II. To incorporate cities, towns or villages, or change, amend or extend charter thereof. institutions not under the control of the State, or amend or extend the charters thereof. III. To incorporate educational, religious, charitable, social, manufacturing or banking IV. To incorporate school districts. V. To authorize the adoption or legitimation of children. VI. To provide for the protection of game. VII. To summon and empanel grand or petit jurors; provided, that tales boxes may be eliminated by special act in York County. VIII. Eliminated. (1920 (31) 1700; 1921 (32) 191; 1934 (38) 1623; 1935 (39) 27.) IX. In all other cases, where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted: Provided, That the General Assembly may enact local or special laws fixing the amount and manner of compensation to be paid to the County Officers of the several counties of the State, and may provide that the fees collected by any such officer, or officers, shall be paid into the treasury of the respective counties. X. The General Assembly shall forthwith enact general laws concerning said subjects for said purposes, which shall be uniform in their operations: Provided, That nothing contained in this section shall prohibit the General Assembly from enacting special provisions in general laws. XI. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to charitable and educational corporations where, under the terms of a gift, devise or will, special incorporation may be required. Provided, That the General Assembly is empowered to divide the State into as many zones as may appear practicable, and to enact legislation as may appear proper for the protection of game in the several zones. Provided, further, that the General Assembly is empowered to divide the State into as many districts as may appear practicable, and to enact legislation as may appear proper for the protection of forestry in the several districts. Provided, there is hereby created a civil service commission in the City of Spartanburg for the benefit of the police department, including its chief, and fire department, including its chief, under such terms and conditions as prescribed by the General Assembly. Provided, that the City of Gaffney may establish a civil service commission for the benefit of such municipal employees as may be designated by the Gaffney City Council, under such terms and conditions as prescribed by the General Assembly.
South Dakota
The Legislature is prohibited from enacting any private or special laws in the following cases: 1. Granting divorces. 2. Changing the names of persons or places, or constituting one person the heir at law of another. 3. Locating or changing county seats. 4. Regulating county and township affairs. 5. Incorporating cities, towns and villages or changing or amending the charter of any town, city or village, or laying out, opening, vacating or altering town plats, streets, wards, alleys and public ground. 6. Providing for sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or others under disability. 7. Authorizing persons to keep ferries across streams wholly within the state. 8. Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures. 9. Granting to an individual, association or corporation any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. 10. Providing for the management of common schools. 11. Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentages or allowances of public officers during the term for which said officers are elected or appointed. But the Legislature may repeal any existing special law relating to the foregoing subdivisions. In all other cases where a general law can be applicable no special law shall be enacted.
No corporation shall be created or have its charter extended, changed or amended by special laws, except those for charitable, educational, penal or reformatory purposes, which are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the state; but the Legislature shall provide, by general laws, for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created.
Tennessee
The Legislature shall have no power to suspend any general law for the benefit of any particular individual, nor to pass any law for the benefit of individuals inconsistent with the general laws of the land; nor to pass any law granting to any individual or individuals, rights, privileges, immunitie, [immunities] or exemptions other than such as may be, by the same law extended to any member of the community, who may be able to bring himself within the provisions of such law. No corporation shall be created or its powers increased or diminished by special laws but the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the organization of all corporations, hereafter created, which laws may, at any time, be altered or repealed, and no such alteration or repeal shall interfere with or divest rights which have become vested.
Texas
(a) The Legislature shall not, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, pass any local or special law, authorizing: (1) the creation, extension or impairing of liens; (2) regulating the affairs of counties, cities, towns, wards or school districts; (3) changing the names of persons or places; (4) changing the venue in civil or criminal cases; (5) authorizing the laying out, opening, altering or maintaining of roads, highways, streets or alleys; (6) relating to ferries or bridges, or incorporating ferry or bridge companies, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form boundaries between this and any other State; (7) vacating roads, town plats, streets or alleys; (8) relating to cemeteries, grave-yards or public grounds not of the State; children; (9) authorizing the adoption or legitimation of (10) locating or changing county seats; (11) incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing their charters; (12) for the opening and conducting of elections, or fixing or changing the places of voting; (13) granting divorces; (14) creating offices, or prescribing the powers and duties of officers, in counties, cities, towns, election or school districts; (15) changing the law of descent or succession; (16) regulating the practice or jurisdiction of, or changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts, justices of the peace, sheriffs, commissioners, arbitrators or other tribunals, or providing or changing methods for the collection of debts, or the enforcing of judgments, or prescribing the effect of judicial sales of real estate; (17) regulating the fees, or extending the powers and duties of aldermen, justices of the peace, magistrates or constables; (18) regulating the management of public schools, the building or repairing of school houses, and the raising of money for such purposes; (19) fixing the rate of interest; (20) affecting the estates of minors, or persons under disability; (21) remitting fines, penalties and forfeitures, and refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury; (22) exempting property from taxation; (23) regulating labor, trade, mining and manufacturing; (24) declaring any named person of age; (25) extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes, or otherwise relieving any assessor or collector of taxes from the due performance of his official duties, or his securities from liability; deeds; (26) giving effect to informal or invalid wills or (27) summoning or empanelling grand or petit juries; (28) for limitation of civil or criminal actions; (29) for incorporating railroads or other works of internal improvements; or (30) relieving or discharging any person or set of persons from the performance of any public duty or service imposed by general law. (b) In addition to those laws described by Subsection (a) of this section in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no local or special law shall be enacted; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit the Legislature from passing: (1) special laws for the preservation of the game and fish of this State in certain localities; and (2) fence laws applicable to any subdivision of this State or counties as may be needed to meet the wants of the people.
No local or special law shall be passed, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been published in the locality where the matter or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law, and shall be published at least thirty days prior to the introduction into the Legislature of such bill and in the manner to be provided by law. The evidence of such notice having been published, shall be exhibited in the Legislature, before such act shall be passed.
US
Utah
No private or special law shall be enacted where a general law can be applicable.
Corporations may be formed under general laws but may not be created by special acts.
The Legislature may not create cities or towns by special laws. The Legislature by statute shall provide for the incorporation, organization, and dissolution of cities and towns and for their classification in proportion to population. Any incorporated city or town may frame and adopt a charter for its own government in the following manner: The legislative authority of the city may, by two-thirds vote of its members, and upon petition of qualified electors to the number of fifteen per cent of all votes cast at the next preceding election for the office of the mayor, shall forthwith provide by ordinance for the submission to the electors of the question: "Shall a commission be chosen to frame a charter?" The ordinance shall require that the question be submitted to the electors at the next regular municipal election. The ballot containing such question shall also contain the names of candidates for members of the proposed commission, but without party designation. Such candidates shall be nominated in the same manner as required by law for nomination of city officers. If a majority of the electors voting on the question of choosing a commission shall vote in the affirmative, then the fifteen candidates receiving a majority of the votes cast at such election, shall constitute the charter commission, and shall proceed to frame a charter. Any charter so framed shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the city at an election to be held at a time to be determined by the charter commission, which shall be not less than sixty days subsequent to its completion and distribution among the electors and not more than one year from such date. Alternative provisions may also be submitted to be voted upon separately. The commission shall make provisions for the distribution of copies of the proposed charter and of any alternative provisions to the qualified electors of the city, not less than sixty days before the election at which it is voted upon. Such proposed charter and such alternative provisions as are approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, shall become an organic law of such city at such time as may be fixed therein, and shall supersede any existing charter and all laws affecting the organization and government of such city which are now in conflict therewith. Within thirty days after its approval a copy of such charter as adopted, certified by the mayor and city recorder and authenticated by the seal of such city, shall be made in duplicate and deposited, one in the office of the secretary of State and the other in the office of the city recorder, and thereafter all courts shall take judicial notice of such charter. Amendments to any such charter may be framed and submitted by a charter commission in the same manner as provided for making of charters, or may be proposed by the legislative authority of the city upon a two-thirds vote thereof, or by petition of qualified electors to a number equal to fifteen per cent of the total votes cast for mayor on the next preceding election, and any such amendment may be submitted at the next regular municipal election, and having been approved by the majority of the electors voting thereon, shall become part of the charter at the time fixed in such amendment and shall be certified and filed as provided in case of charters. Each city forming its charter under this section shall have, and is hereby granted, the authority to exercise all powers relating to municipal affairs, and to adopt and enforce within its limits, local police, sanitary and similar regulations not in conflict with the general law, and no enumeration of powers in this constitution or any law shall be deemed to limit or restrict the general grant of authority hereby conferred; but this grant of authority shall not include the power to regulate public utilities, not municipally owned, if any such regulation of public utilities is provided for by general law, nor be deemed to limit or restrict the power of the Legislature in matters relating to State affairs, to enact general laws applicable alike to all cities of the State. The power to be conferred upon the cities by this section shall include the following: (a) To levy, assess and collect taxes and borrow money, within the limits prescribed by general law, and to levy and collect special assessments for benefits conferred. (b) To furnish all local public services, to purchase, hire, construct, own, maintain and operate, or lease, public utilities local in extent and use; to acquire by condemnation, or otherwise, within or without the corporate limits, property necessary for any such purposes, subject to restrictions imposed by general law for the protection of other communities; and to grant local public utility franchises and within its powers regulate the exercise thereof. (c) To make local public improvements and to acquire by condemnation, or otherwise, property within its corporate limits necessary for such improvements; and also to acquire an excess over than [that] needed for any such improvement and to sell or lease such excess property with restrictions, in order to protect and preserve the improvement. (d) To issue and sell bonds on the security of any such excess property, or of any public utility owned by the city, or of the revenues thereof, or both, including, in the case of public utility, a franchise stating the terms upon which, in case of foreclosure, the purchaser may operate such utility.
Virginia
The authority of the General Assembly shall extend to all subjects of legislation not herein forbidden or restricted; and a specific grant of authority in this Constitution upon a subject shall not work a restriction of its authority upon the same or any other subject. The omission in this Constitution of specific grants of authority heretofore conferred shall not be construed to deprive the General Assembly of such authority, or to indicate a change of policy in reference thereto, unless such purpose plainly appear. The General Assembly shall confer on the courts power to grant divorces, change the names of persons, and direct the sales 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's power to define the accrual date for a civil action based on an intentional tort committed by a natural person against a person who, at the time of the intentional tort, was a minor shall include the power to provide for the retroactive application of a change in the accrual date. No natural person shall have a constitutionally protected property right to bar a cause of action based on intentional torts as described herein on the ground that a change in the accrual date for the action has been applied retroactively or that a statute of limitations or statute of repose has expired. 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 Commonwealth or to any political subdivision thereof. (9) Refunding money lawfully paid into the treasury of the Commonwealth or the treasury of any political subdivision thereof. (10) Granting from the treasury of the Commonwealth, 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 registering voters, 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. (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.
In all cases enumerated in the preceding 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 enactment of, a special, private, or local law. No general or special law shall surrender or suspend the right and power of the Commonwealth, or any political subdivision thereof, to tax corporations and corporate property, except as authorized by Article X. No private corporation, association, or individual shall be specially exempted from the operation of any general law, nor shall a general law's operation be suspended for the benefit of any private corporation, association, or individual.
Vermont
No charter of incorporation shall be granted, extended, changed or amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as are to be and remain under the patronage or control of the State; but the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created. All general laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time or repealed.
Washington
The legislature is prohibited from enacting any private or special laws in the following cases: 1. For changing the names of persons, or constituting one person the heir at law of another. 2. For laying out, opening or altering highways, except in cases of state roads extending into more than one county, and military roads to aid in the construction of which lands shall have been or may be granted by congress. 3. For authorizing persons to keep ferries wholly within this state. 4. For authorizing the sale or mortgage of real or personal property of minors, or others under disability. 5. For assessment or collection of taxes, or for extending the time for collection thereof. 6. For granting corporate powers or privileges. 7. For authorizing the apportionment of any part of the school fund. 8. For incorporating any town or village or to amend the charter thereof. 9. From giving effect to invalid deeds, wills or other instruments. 10. Releasing or extinguishing in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or other obligation, of any person, or corporation to this state, or to any municipal corporation therein. 11. Declaring any person of age or authorizing any minor to sell, lease, or encumber his or her property. 12. Legalizing, except as against the state, the unauthorized or invalid act of any officer. 13. Regulating the rates of interest on money. 14. Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures. 15. Providing for the management of common schools. 16. Authorizing the adoption of children. 17. For limitation of civil or criminal actions. 18. Changing county lines, locating or changing county seats, provided, this shall not be construed to apply to the creation of new counties.
Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special acts. All laws relating to corporations may be altered, amended or repealed by the legislature at any time, and all corporations doing business in this state may, as to such business, be regulated, limited or restrained by law.
Corporations for municipal purposes shall not be created by special laws; but the legislature, by general laws, shall provide for the incorporation, organization and classification in proportion to population, of cities and towns, which laws may be altered, amended or repealed. Cities and towns heretofore organized, or incorporated may become organized under such general laws whenever a majority of the electors voting at a general election, shall so determine, and shall organize in conformity therewith; and cities or towns heretofore or hereafter organized, and all charters thereof framed or adopted by authority of this Constitution shall be subject to and controlled by general laws. Any city containing a population of ten thousand inhabitants, or more, shall be permitted to frame a charter for its own government, consistent with and subject to the Constitution and laws of this state, and for such purpose the legislative authority of such city may cause an election to be had at which election there shall be chosen by the qualified electors of said city, fifteen freeholders thereof, who shall have been residents of said city for a period of at least two years preceding their election and qualified electors, whose duty it shall be to convene within ten days after their election, and prepare and propose a charter for such city. Such proposed charter shall be submitted to the qualified electors of said city, and if a majority of such qualified electors voting thereon ratify the same, it shall become the charter of said city, and shall become the organic law thereof, and supersede any existing charter including amendments thereto, and all special laws inconsistent with such charter. Said proposed charter shall be published in the daily newspaper of largest general circulation published in the area to be incorporated as a first class city under the charter or, if no daily newspaper is published therein, then in the newspaper having the largest general circulation within such area at least once each week for four weeks next preceding the day of submitting the same to the electors for their approval, as above provided. All elections in this section authorized shall only be had upon notice, which notice shall specify the object of calling such election, and shall be given as required by law. Said elections may be general or special elections, and except as herein provided shall be governed by the law regulating and controlling general or special elections in said city. Such charter may be amended by proposals therefor submitted by the legislative authority of such city to the electors thereof at any general election after notice of said submission published as above specified, and ratified by a majority of the qualified electors voting thereon. In submitting any such charter, or amendment thereto, any alternate article or proposition may be presented for the choice of the voters, and may be voted on separately without prejudice to others.
Wisconsin
The legislature is prohibited from enacting any special or private laws in the following cases: (1) For changing the names of persons, constituting one per- son the heir at law of another or granting any divorce. (2) For laying out, opening or altering highways, except in cases of state roads extending into more than one county, and military roads to aid in the construction of which lands may be granted by congress. (3) For authorizing persons to keep ferries across streams at points wholly within this state. (4) For authorizing the sale or mortgage of real or personal property of minors or others under disability. (5) For locating or changing any county seat. (6) For assessment or collection of taxes or for extending the time for the collection thereof. (7) For granting corporate powers or privileges, except to cities. (8) For authorizing the apportionment of any part of the school fund. (9) For incorporating any city, town or village, or to amend the charter thereof.
No private or local bill which may be passed by the legislature shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
Corporations, without banking powers or privileges, may be formed under general laws, but shall not be created by special act, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where, in the judgment of the legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws. All general laws or special acts enacted under the provisions of this section may be altered or repealed by the legislature at any time after their passage.
West Virginia
The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases; that is to say, for Granting divorces; Laying out, opening, altering and working roads or highways; Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys and public grounds; Locating, or changing county seats; Regulating or changing county or district affairs; Providing for the sale of church property, or property held for charitable uses; Regulating the practice in courts of justice; Incorporating cities, towns or villages, or amending the charter of any city, town or village, containing a population of less than two thousand; Summoning or impaneling grand or petit juries; The opening or conducting of any election, or designating the place of voting; The sale and mortgage of real estate belonging to minors, or others under disability; Chartering, licensing, or establishing ferries or toll bridges; Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; Changing the law of descent; Regulating the rate of interest; Authorizing deeds to be made for land sold for taxes; Releasing taxes; Releasing title to forfeited lands. The Legislature shall provide, by general laws, for the foregoing and all other cases for which provision can be so made; and in no case shall a special act be passed, where a general law would be proper, and can be made applicable to the case, nor in any other case in which the courts have jurisdiction, and are competent to give the relief asked for.
The Legislature shall provide for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created, by general laws, uniform as to the class to which they relate; but no corporation shall be created by special law: Provided, That nothing in this section contained, shall prevent the Legislature from providing by special laws for the connection, by canal, of the waters of the Chesapeake with the Ohio River by line of the James River, Greenbrier, New River and Great Kanawha.
No local or special law shall hereafter be passed incorporating cities, towns or villages, or amending their charters. The Legislature shall provide by general laws for the incorporation and government of cities, towns and villages, and shall classify such municipal corporations, upon the basis of population, into not less than two nor more than five classes. Such general laws shall restrict the powers of such cities, towns and villages to borrow money and contract debts, and shall limit the rate of taxes for municipal purposes, in accordance with section one, article ten of the constitution of the state of West Virginia. Under such general laws, the electors of each municipal corporation, wherein the population exceeds two thousand, shall have power and authority to frame, adopt and amend the charter of such corporation, or to amend an existing charter thereof, and through its legally constituted authority, may pass all laws and ordinances relating to its municipal affairs: Provided, That any such charter or amendment thereto, and any such law or ordinance so adopted, shall be invalid and void if inconsistent or in conflict with this constitution or the general laws of the state then in effect, or thereafter from time to time enacted.
Wyoming
The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: For granting divorces; laying out, opening, altering or working roads or highways; vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys or public grounds; locating or changing county seats; regulating county or township affairs; incorporation of cities, towns or villages; or changing or amending the charters of any cities, towns or villages; regulating the practice in courts of justice; regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace, police magistrates or constables; changing the rules of evidence in any trial or inquiry; providing for changes of venue in civil or criminal cases; declaring any person of age; for limitation of civil actions; giving effect to any informal or invalid deeds; summoning or impaneling grand or petit juries; providing for the management of common schools; regulating the rate of interest on money; the opening or conducting of any election or designating the place of voting; the sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or others under disability; chartering or licensing ferries or bridges or toll roads; chartering banks, insurance companies and loan and trust companies; remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; creating[,] increasing, or decreasing fees, percentages or allowances of public officers; changing the law of descent; granting to any corporation, association or individual, the right to lay down railroad tracks, or any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever, or amending existing charter for such purpose; for punishment of crimes; changing the names of persons or places; for the assessment or collection of taxes; affecting estates of deceased persons, minors or others under legal disabilities; extending the time for the collection of taxes; refunding money paid into the state treasury, relinquishing or extinguishing, in whole or part, the indebtedness, liabilities or obligation of any corporation or person to this state or to any municipal corporation therein; exempting property from taxation; restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous crimes; authorizing the creation, extension or impairing of liens; creating offices or prescribing the powers or duties of officers in counties, cities, townships or school districts; or authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children. In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable no special law shall be enacted.