Alabama Legislature

“ Any proposed constitutional amendment which affects or applies to only one county shall be adopted as a valid part of the constitution by a favorable vote of a majority of the qualified electors of the affected county who vote on the amendment. Any proposed constitutional amendment which affects or applies to only one political subdivision within a county or counties shall be adopted as a valid part of the constitution by a favorable vote of a majority of the qualified electors of both the county and the political subdivision affected by the amendment who vote on the amendment. ”

“ Representation in the legislature shall be based upon population, and such basis of representation shall not be changed by constitutional amendments. The maximum size of the Alabama House was increased from 105 to 106 with the creation of a new county in 1903, pursuant to the constitutional provision which states that, in addition to the prescribed 105 House seats, each county thereafter created shall be entitled to one representative. ”

“ The legislature of Alabama may hereafter from time to time by general or local laws, but subject to the provisions of section 281 of the Constitution of Alabama, fix, regulate and alter the costs, charges of court, fees, commissions, allowances or salaries to be charged or received by the judge of probate, sheriff, tax assessor, tax collector, clerk of the circuit court, and register in chancery of Limestone county, Alabama ”

“ The Legislature shall have the power, by special or local law, to create, or provide for the creation of, any public corporation, authority, board, agency, or other entity empowered or intended to assist or aid in any way the county or the municipality in carrying out the purposes of this amendment and the special or local law shall not be subject to the provisions of Sections 104 and 106 of this constitution, as amended. ”

“ If after having been approved by at least a three-fifths vote of the elected members of each house of the Legislature without a dissenting vote cast the proposed amendment is not approved by a majority vote the Local Constitutional Amendment Commission, it shall automatically be submitted in a statewide referendum in accordance with the procedures for proposed statewide constitutional amendments under Sections 284 and 285 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. ”

“ Plaintiffs below alleged that the last apportionment of the Alabama Legislature was based on the 1900 federal census, despite the requirement of the State Constitution that the legislature be reapportioned decennially. They asserted that, since the population growth in the State from 1900 to 1960 had been uneven, Jefferson and other counties were now victims of serious discrimination with respect to the allocation of legislative representation. ”

“ The judicial power of the state shall be vested in the senate sitting as a court of impeachment, a supreme court, circuit courts, chancery courts, courts of probate, such courts of law and equity inferior to the supreme court, and to consist of not more than five members, as the legislature from time to time may establish, and such persons as may be by law invested with powers of a judicial nature ”

“ The Legislature shall pass general laws under which corporations and other entities may be organized, authorized to do business or conduct their affairs, operated, dissolved, and regulated; such laws, now existing or hereafter passed, shall be subject to amendment or repeal by general law. The Legislature, by general law, shall provide for the payment to the State of Alabama of a tax on the privilege of doing business in Alabama or being organized, incorporated, qualified, or registered under the laws of Alabama. ”

“ As a native-born citizen of Alabama, and one who has always endeavored to serve my people and state to the best of my ability, both in time of war and in time of peace, I feel that I have a right to demand that justice be done. Thousands of true men all over this great commonwealth honored me with their support in the August election, and in their name I demand of the Legislature, a prompt and impartial investigation of this matter. ”

“ Inequality of representation in one house added to the inequality in the other. With the crazy-quilt existing apportionment virtually conceded to be invalid, the Alabama Legislature offered two proposed plans for consideration by the District Court, neither of which was to be effective until 1966 and neither of which provided for the apportionment of even one of the two houses on a population basis. ”

“ If at any time it should from any cause become impossible or dangerous for the legislature to meet or remain at the capitol or for the senate to meet or remain in the senate chamber, or for the representatives to meet or remain in the hall of the house of representatives, the governor may convene the legislature, or remove it after it has convened, to some other place, or may designate some other place for the sitting of the respective houses, or either of them, as necessity may require. ”

“ No act of the legislature changing the seat of government of the state shall become a law until the same shall have been submitted to the qualified electors of the state at a general election, and approved by a majority of such electors voting on the same ”

“ 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 ”

“ To the end that the government of the State of Alabama may be a government of laws and not of individuals, and except as expressly directed or permitted in this constitution, the legislative branch may not exercise the executive or judicial power, the executive branch may not exercise the legislative or judicial power, and the judicial branch may not exercise the legislative or executive power. ”

“ No State or county official shall, at any time during his term of office, accept, either directly or indirectly, any fee, money, office, appointment, employment, reward, or thing of value, or of personal advantage, or the promise thereof, to lobby for or against any measure pending before the Legislature, or to give or withhold his influence to secure the passage or defeat of any such measure.
102. The Legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a negro, or descendant of a negro. ”

“ For the purposes of this amendment, the words "elected or appointed county official" shall include, subject only to express limitation, any person holding an office that entitles the person to participate in a supernumerary program and includes any person appointed to serve the remaining term of an elected or appointed county official, but shall not include a judge, district attorney, constable, legislator, school board member, or any official elected from a judicial circuit. ”

“ Appointment of legislators to other offices during terms for which elected. No senator or representative shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, be appointed to any office of profit under this state, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased during such term, except such offices as may be filled by election by the people. Sec. 60. Conviction of certain crimes bar to eligibility for legislature and to holding state office of trust or profit. ”

“ The passage of local or special bills by the legislature was prohibited. A provision intended to prevent lobbying is that no one except legislators and the representatives of the press may be admitted to the floor of the House except by unanimous vote. No executive official can succeed himself in office, and the governor cannot be elected or appointed to the United States Senate, or to any state office during his term as governor, or within one year thereafter. Sheriffs whose prisoners suffer mob violence may be impeached. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He was for a number of years devoted to the practice of his profession before he entered public [Pg 74] life. At the age of thirty-four he represented Greene county in the state legislature. He brought to the office of a legislator an experience seasoned by years of study and court practice, with a native courage and coolness, coupled with a force of boldness of view that gave him one of the first places in the able body which constituted the legislature of 1840. Three marked elements of strength were his—great ability in debate, remarkable oratorical strength, and the tact of leadership. ”

“ A circuit court, or a court having the jurisdiction of a circuit court, is held in each county of the State at least twice every year. The State is divided into chancery divisions, with a chancellor for each division. The divisions are subdivided into districts, in each of which the chancellor holds court at least twice each year. The legislature may establish courts of probate in each county. ”

“ The law of Alabama does no more than authorize that to be done at once, which by a long course of proceedings in the courts should have been effected. It is impossible to lay down the limits between legislative and judicial powers. It is not in the power of the courts to interfere, and say this was not legislative power; and thus to assume a control over the legislature which will destroy it. ”