When the Arkansas General Assembly passes a law in a special session without an emergency clause and without a stated effective date, when does the law actually take effect?
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This page answers the general question as of 2021. Ezel answers yours: what it means for your facts, under current Arkansas law, with citations.
Plain-English summary
Secretary of State John Thurston asked when four acts of the 93rd General Assembly took effect. The acts passed during the legislature's post-recess session that adjourned sine die on October 15, 2021. Each act went into law without the governor's signature, but the emergency clauses (which would have made them take effect immediately) failed to pass.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge applied the math. Amendment 7 of the Arkansas Constitution sets the referendum window at 90 days after final adjournment, meaning the people have 90 days to gather signatures to put a non-emergency act on the ballot. An act without an emergency clause cannot take effect during that 90-day window, because doing so would defeat the referendum right. The day of adjournment is not counted (no full referendum-petition day). Counting from October 16, 2021, the 90th day landed on January 13, 2022. So the four acts took effect the next day, Friday, January 14, 2022.
This is the same constitutional rule that applies to ordinary regular-session legislation. The "extended recess" framing in the question turned out not to matter, because Amendment 7's clause expressly addresses recesses or temporary adjournments longer than 90 days: the petition window runs from the eventual final adjournment.
Currency note
This opinion was issued in 2021. The specific effective date it computed (January 14, 2022) is now in the past. Use this opinion as historical authority on Arkansas's general 91st-day effective-date rule for non-emergency legislation, but for any new question about a recent session, recompute the date from the actual sine die adjournment, and check whether any constitutional amendments since 2021 have changed the referendum-window framework.
What this means for you
If you are a state agency or stakeholder waiting on a non-emergency act
Based on this opinion, the rule is the same one that has applied since the 1941 Arkansas Supreme Court decision in Fulkerson v. Refunding Board: a non-emergency act becomes effective on the 91st day after sine die adjournment of the session in which it was passed. If you are timing a compliance program, a contract, or an enforcement action to a new statute, count from the actual adjournment date the legislature recorded, skip the day of adjournment, and run forward 90 days. The act activates on day 91.
If a session goes into a long recess, the same rule applies, but the 90 days run from the eventual sine die adjournment, not from the start of the recess. Amendment 7 explicitly contemplates that timing in its parenthetical about adjournments longer than 90 days.
If you are a lobbyist, advocacy group, or referendum proponent
The 90-day window is your constitutional referendum-signature collection period. It is also the buffer against acts taking effect before the people can challenge them. If you intend to refer an act, file with the Secretary of State within those 90 days. The act does not take effect until day 91.
If you are a state legislator drafting a bill
If you want a bill to take effect immediately on signing, you need an emergency clause that actually passes (typically a separate vote with a two-thirds majority). If the emergency clause fails, your bill defaults to the 91st-day rule even if it became law without the governor's signature. The emergency-clause failure does not defeat the substantive bill, only its timing.
Common questions
Q: Why January 14, 2022, exactly?
A: October 16, 2021, is day 1 of the referendum window (the day after sine die adjournment on October 15). Day 90 is January 13, 2022. The act takes effect on day 91, which is January 14, 2022.
Q: What if an act has a stated effective date of, say, "July 1, 2022"?
A: Then the stated date controls (assuming it is not earlier than the constitutional 91st day, which would be unconstitutional under Amendment 7). The 91st-day rule is the default for acts that don't say otherwise.
Q: What is an emergency clause?
A: A separate provision attached to a bill that asserts the act is necessary for immediate preservation of public peace, health, or safety. If passed by the required supermajority, it makes the act effective immediately on signing, bypassing the 90-day referendum window. Emergency clauses can fail even when the underlying bill passes.
Q: Does Fulkerson v. Refunding Board still control?
A: It is the foundational 1941 Arkansas Supreme Court interpretation of Amendment 7's effective-date impact. The AG cited it without qualification. Newer cases may refine specific applications, but the core 91st-day rule remains.
Q: What about an act that passes without the governor's signature?
A: Same rule. Non-signature is not the same thing as a veto. If the governor does not sign and does not veto within the constitutional window, the act becomes law and follows the standard timing rule.
Background and statutory framework
The relevant constitutional provision is Amendment 7 to the Arkansas Constitution, codified at Ark. Const. art. 5, § 1 ("Initiative and Referendum"). The referendum portion provides:
Petitions calling for a referendum vote shall be filed with the Secretary of State not later than ninety days after the final adjournment of the session at which such Act was passed, except when a recess or adjournment shall be taken temporarily for a longer period than ninety days, in which case such petition shall be filed not later than ninety days after such recess or temporary adjournment.
The Arkansas Supreme Court in Fulkerson v. Refunding Board, 201 Ark. 957, 147 S.W.2d 980 (1941), interpreted the interaction of this referendum window and the effective dates of legislation: an act without an emergency clause cannot take effect inside the 90-day referendum window, so it takes effect the day after that window ends, on day 91 measured from the day after sine die adjournment.
The 93rd Arkansas General Assembly held a regular session in early 2021, then went into an extended recess and reconvened, ultimately adjourning sine die on October 15, 2021. Four acts passed during the post-recess session lacked emergency clauses or specified effective dates. Counting from October 16, 2021, the 91st day was January 14, 2022, the effective date.
Citations
- Ark. Const. amend. 7 (codified at Ark. Const. art. 5, § 1) (Initiative and Referendum)
- Fulkerson v. Refunding Board, 201 Ark. 957, 147 S.W.2d 980 (1941)
Source
Original opinion text
Opinion No. 2021-092
November 4, 2021
The Honorable John Thurston
Secretary of State
Arkansas State Capitol
Room 256
Little Rock, AR 72201
Dear Secretary Thurston:
STATE OF ARKANSAS
ATTORNEY GENERAL
LESLIE RUTLEDGE
This is in response to your request for my opinion on the effective date of four
pieces of legislation passed after the extended recess of the 93d General
Assembly, which adjourned sine die on October 15, 2021. Your request states
your understanding that while the four acts passed and became law without the
Governor's signature, the emergency clauses contained in the acts failed to pass.
RESPONSE
Amendment 7 to the Arkansas Constitution, which establishes the people's right
to challenge legislative acts via referendum, governs the effective date of Acts of
the General Assembly without an emergency clause (or with an ineffective
emergency clause) or specified effective date. Amendment 7 provides that
petitions calling for a referendum vote "shall be filed with the Secretary of State
not later than ninety days after the final adjournment of the session at which such
Act was passed, except when a recess or adjournment shall be taken temporarily
for a longer period than ninety days, in which case such petition shall be filed not
later than ninety days after such recess or temporary adjournment."
Thus, acts of the General Assembly with no emergency clause or specified
effective date become effective on the 91st day after adjournment of the session in
which they were enacted. The day of adjournment is not counted, as it is not a full
day during which petitions may be filed.
Your request states that the 93d General Assembly adjourned sine die on October
15, 2021, after its extended recess. Starting with October 16, 2021 (the first full
day after adjournment), the 90th day in this case is January 13, 2022. This means
that the four acts passed with no emergency clause or specified effective date
during the session of the Ninety-Third Arkansas General Assembly following
its extended recess become effective on Friday, January 14, 2022.
Sincerely,
LESLIE RUTLEDGE
Attorney General
[Footnotes:
1 Codified at Ark. Const. art. 5, § 1.
2 See Fulkerson v. Refunding Board, 201 Ark. 957, 147 S.W.2d 980 (1941).
3 Ark. Const. art. 5, § 1 ("Referendum").]
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