Pennsylvania Advisory Opinions July 08, 1919: AGO 2

Advisory Opinion Text

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION-PUBLICATION OF JOINT RESOLUTION.

The Joint Resolution No. 4 of the legislative session of 1919, proposing an amendment to Section 1 of Article IX of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, provides that the amendment should be submitted to the electors of the State at large at the general election to be held on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November, 1919. As there is no general election in 1919, the resolution falls.

Office of the Attorney General, Honorable Cyrus E. Woods, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Harris-burg, Pa.

Dear Sir: There has been received by this Department your letter of June 25, inquiring whether the amendment to Section 1 of Article IX of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, as proposed in Joint Resolution No. 4 of the Legislative Session of 1919, should be published this year, or in the year 1920.

Section 1 of Article XVIII of the Constitution expressly provides that the Secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause such amendments to be published three month before the next general election.

Section 2 of Article VIII provides that the general election shall be held biennially on the Tuesday next following the first Monday in November in each even numbered year.

Section 3 of Article VIII provides for municipal elections, which shall be held on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November in each odd numbered year.

The publication of an amendment in the manner required by the Constitution must precede its submission to the voters. The requirement is publication three months before the next general election. While the Constitution provides in Section 1 of Article XVIII that amendments may be submitted to the electors of the State in such manner and at such time, at least three months after being agreed to by the two Houses as the General Assembly may prescribe, this provision must be read in conjunction with the provision relative to publication, and when so read, the plain meaning of the whole section is that the Constitution has fixed the earliest day at which an amendment may be submitted to the electors at the general election next succeeding the three months publication, and to that extent has limited the General Assembly in its powers to prescribe the date of submission.

Measured by this rule, what of the Joint Resolution providing the amendment in question? Its second section prescribes that the amendment shall be submitted to the electors of the State at large, at the general election to be held on the Tuesday next following the first Monday of November in the year 1919.

There is no general election to be held in the year 1919. . It follows, therefore, that the publication required by the Constitution cannot be made before the date fixed in the Resolution for submission to the electors, and that the amendment cannot be submitted upon the day named therein.

The views herein expressed are in accord with the reasoning of First Deputy Attorney General Keller in an opinion upon a somewhat similar question, under date of July 10, 1917.

You are advised, therefore, that the proposed amendment should not be published in the year 1919, and that inasmuch as the date is fixed in the Resolution for submitting the question to the electors, there will be no reason to publish the amendment after that date; therefore, the Resolution falls.

Very truly yours,

ROBERT S. GAWTHROP, First Deputy Attorney General.