Powers restricted. How vested ARTICLE III. DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. SECTION 1. The powers of the Government of the State of Nevada shall be divided into three separate departments-the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial; and no persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments, shall exercise any functions appertaining to either of the others, except in the cases herein expressly directed or permitted. ARTICLE IV. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. SECTION 1. The Legislative authority of this State shall be vested in a Senate and Assembly, which shall be designated Where held "The Legislature of the State of Nevada," and the sessions of such Legislature shall be held at the seat of government of the State. Sessions. Assemblymen, when chosen. Term of office. Senators, when chosen. Term of office. Senators and Assembly men, qualifications of. Right to judge of qualifications.. May punish for etc. SEC. 2. The sessions of the Legislature shall be biennial, and shall commence on the first Monday of January next ensuing the election of members of the Assembly, unless the Governor of the State shall, in the interim, convene the Legislature by proclamation. SEC. 3. The members of the Assembly shall be chosen biennially, by the qualified electors of their respective districts, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, and their term of office shall be two years from the day next after their election. SEC. 4. Senators shall be chosen at the same time and places as members of the Assembly, by the qualified electors of their respective districts, and their term of office shall be four years from the day next after their election. SEC. 5. Senators and members of the Assembly shall be duly qualified electors in the respective counties and districts which they represent, and the number of Senators shall not be less than one third nor more than one half of that of the members of the Assembly. SEC. 6. Each House shall judge of the qualifications, elections, and returns of its own members, choose its own officers (except the President of the Senate), determine the rules of its proceedings, and may punish its members for disorderly conduct, and, with the concurrence of two thirds of all the members elected, expel a member. SEC. 7. Either House, during the session, may punish, by contempt, imprisonment, any person not a member who shall have been guilty of disrespect to the House by disorderly or contemptuous behavior in its presence; but such imprisonment shall not extend beyond the final adjournment of the session. SEC. 8. No Senator or member of Assembly shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, nor for one year thereafter, be appointed to any civil office of profit under this Not eligible to State which shall have been created, or the emoluments of appointwhich shall have been increased, during such term, except such ment to office as may be filled by elections by the people. civil office. office. SEC. 9. No person holding any lucrative office under the Who not Government of the United States, or any other power, shall be eligible to eligible to any civil office of profit under this State; provided, that Postmasters whose compensation does not exceed five hundred dollars per annum, or Commissioners of Deeds, shall not be deemed as holding a lucrative office. qualified. SEC. 10. Any person who shall be convicted of the embezzle- When disment or defalcation of the public funds of this State, or who may be convicted of having given or offered a bribe to procure his election or appointment to office, or received a bribe to aid in the procurement of office for any other person, shall be disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust in this State; and the Legislature shall, as soon as practicable, provide by law for the punishment of such defalcation, bribery, or embezzlement, as a felony. exempt SEC. 11. Members of the Legislature shall be privileged from Members arrest on civil process during the session of the Legislature, from arrest. and for fifteen days next before the commencement of each session. SEC. 12. how filled. When vacancies occur in either House, the Governor Vacancies, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancy. SEC. 13. A majority of all the members elected to each Quorum. House shall constitute a quorum to transact business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties as each House may prescribe. required. SEC. 14. Each House shall keep a journal of its own pro- Journal ceedings, which shall be published, and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question, shall, at the desire of any three members present, be entered on the journal. SEC. 15. The doors of each House shall be kept open during Doors may its session, except the Senate while sitting in executive session; and neither shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which they may be holding their sessions. be closed. bills may SEC. 16. Any bill may originate in either House of the Where Legislature, and all bills passed by one may be amended in the originate. other. to embrace. SEC. 17. Each law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace Laws, what but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, which subject shall be briefly expressed in the title; and no law shall be revised or amended by reference to its title only; but, in such case, the Act as revised, or section as amended, shall be reënacted and published at length. reud. SEC. 18. Every bill shall be read by sections on three several Bills, how days in each House, unless in case of emergency two thirds of the House where such bill may be pending shall deem it expedient to dispense with this rule; but the reading of a bill. by sections, on its final passage, shall in no case be dispensed How passed. How signed. Money, how to be drawn. Legislation restricted. Laws to be general. Suits with, and the vote on the final passage of every bill or joint resolution shall be taken by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journals of each House; and a majority of all the members elected to each House shall be necessary to pass every bill or joint resolution, and all bills or joint resolutions so passed shall be signed by the presiding officers of the respective Houses, and by the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the Assembly. SEC. 19. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be attached to and published with the laws at every regular session of the Legislature. SEC. 20. The Legislature shall not pass local or special laws For the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors; Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases; 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. SEC. 21. 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. SEC. 22. Provision may be made by general law for bringing against the suit against the State, as to all liabilities originating after the adoption of this Constitution. State. Enacting clause. Lotteries SEC. 23. The enacting clause of every law shall be as follows: "The People of the State of Nevada, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows," and no law shall be enacted except by bill. SEC. 24. No lottery shall be authorized by this State, nor prohibited. shall the sale of lottery tickets be allowed. County and township government. County Commissioners. Jury service. SEC. 25. The Legislature shall establish a system of county and township government, which shall be uniform throughout the State. SEC. 26. The Legislature shall provide by law for the election of a Board of County Commissioners in each county, and such County Commissioners shall, jointly and individually, perform such duties as may be prescribed by law. SEC. 27. Laws shall be made to exclude from serving on juries all persons not qualified electors of this State, and all persons who shall have been convicted of bribery, perjury, forgery, larceny, or other high crimes, unless restored to civil rights; and laws shall be passed regulating elections, and pro- Elections. hibiting, under adequate penalties, all undue influence thereon from power, bribery, tumult, or other improper practice. be drawn Treasury. SEC. 28. No money shall be drawn from the State Treasury When as salary or compensation to any officer or employé of the money may Legislature, or either branch thereof, except in cases where from such salary or compensation has been fixed by a law in force prior to the election or appointment of such officer or employé, and the salary or compensation so fixed shall neither be increased nor diminished so as to apply to any officer or employé of the Legislature, or either branch thereof, at such session: provided, that this restriction shall not apply to the first session of the Legislature. SEC. 29. The first regular session of the Legislature, under Time of this Constitution, may extend to ninety days, but no subsequent sessions. regular session shall exceed sixty days, nor any special session, convened by the Governor, exceed twenty days. steads forced SEC. 30. A homestead, as provided by law, shall be exempt Homefrom forced sale under any process of law, and shall not be exempt alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife, when from that relation exists; but no property shall be exempt from sale sale. for taxes or for the payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of said premises, or for the erection of improvements thereon; provided, the provisions of this section shall not apply to any process of law obtained by virtue of a lien given by the consent of both husband and wife; and laws shall be enacted providing for the recording of such homestead within the county in which the same shall be situated. to hold SEC. 31. All property, both real and personal, of the wife, Wife owned or claimed by her before marriage, and that acquired property. afterward by gift, devise, or descent, shall be her separate property; and laws shall be passed more clearly defining the rights of the wife in relation, as well to her separate property as to that held in common with her husband. Laws shall also be passed providing for the registration of the wife's separate tion." property. Registra SEC. 32. The Legislature shall provide for the election, by Officers, the people, of a Clerk of the Supreme Court, County Clerks, provision to County Recorders, who shall be ex officio County Auditors, election of District Attorneys, Sheriffs, County Surveyors, Public Administrators, and other necessary officers, and fix, by law, their duties and compensation. County Clerks shall be ex officio Clerks of the Courts of record, and of the Boards of County Commissioners, in and for their respective counties. SEC. 33 The members of the Legislature shall receive for Compentheir services, a compensation to be fixed by law, and paid out sation. of the public Treasury; but no increase of such compensation shall take effect during the term for which the members of either House shall have been elected; provided, that an appropriation may be made for the payment of such actual expenses as members of the Legislature may incur for postage, express charges, newspapers, and stationery, not exceeding the sum of sixty dollars for any general or special session, to each member; United States Senators, and, furthermore provided, that the Speaker of the Assembly, and Lieutenant Governor as President of the Senate, shall each, during the time of their actual attendance as such presiding officers, receive an additional allowance of two dollars per diem. SEC. 34. In all elections for United States Senators, such elections shall be held in Joint Convention of both Houses of how elected the Legislature. It shall be the duty of the Legislature which convenes next preceding the expiration of the term of such Senator, to elect his successor. If a vacancy in such Senatorial representation, from any cause occur, it shall be the duty of the Legislature then in session, or at the succeeding session thereof, to supply such vacancy. If the Legislature shall, at any time, as herein provided, fail to unite in a Joint Convention within twenty days after the commencement of the session of the Legislature, for the election [of] such Senator, it shall be the duty of the Governor, by proclamation, to convene the two Houses of the Legislature in Joint Convention within not less than five days nor exceeding ten days from the publication of his proclamation; and the Joint Convention, when so assembled, shall proceed to elect the Senator as herein provided. SEC. 35. Every bill which may have passed the Legislature shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Governor. If he approve it, he shall sign it; but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to the House in which it originated, which House shall cause such objections to be entered upon its journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, it again pass both Houses by yeas and nays, by a vote of two thirds of the members elected to each House, it shall become a law, notwithstanding the Governor's objections. If any bill shall not be returned within five days after it shall have been presented to him (Sunday excepted), exclusive of the day on which he received it, the same shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Legislature, by its final adjournment, prevent such return, in which case it shall be a law, unless the Governor, within ten days next after the adjournment (Sunday excepted), shall file such bill, with his objections thereto, in the office of the Secretary of State, who shall lay the same before the Legislature at its next session, in like manner as if it had been returned by the Governor; and if the same shall receive the vote of two thirds of the members elected to each branch of the Legislature, upon a vote taken by yeas and nays, to be entered upon the journals of each House, it shall become a law. ARTICLE V. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. SECTION 1. The supreme executive power of this State shall be vested in a chief magistrate, who shall be Governor of the State of Nevada. SEC. 2. The Governor shall be elected by the qualified electors at the time and places of voting for members of the Legislature, and shall hold his office for four years from the time of his installation, and until his successor shall be qualified. |