When does an Arkansas law passed in 2025 without an emergency clause go into effect?
Subject
The effective date of acts passed at the regular session of the 95th Arkansas General Assembly without an emergency clause or other specified effective date.
Plain-English summary
Secretary of State Cole Jester asked the AG when acts of the 95th General Assembly without emergency clauses or specified effective dates would take effect. The 95th General Assembly adjourned sine die on May 5, 2025.
The Arkansas Constitution at article 5, § 1 makes any state law subject to a referendum: voters have 90 days after the legislature's final adjournment to file a petition to put the law on the ballot. Until that 90-day window closes, the law isn't really final. So the constitutional rule is that an act without an emergency clause becomes effective the day after the referendum-petition deadline.
The math:
- Adjournment: May 5, 2025
- Day-counting starts: May 6, 2025 (the first full day after adjournment)
- 90 days later: Sunday, August 3, 2025
- Sunday isn't a business day for filing referendum petitions, so the deadline extends to: Monday, August 4, 2025
- The day after the deadline (the effective date): Tuesday, August 5, 2025
That's the answer for every act of the 2025 session that didn't have an emergency clause and didn't specify its own effective date.
The AG cited Fulkerson v. Refunding Board, 201 Ark. 957, 147 S.W.2d 980 (1941), for the general rule that the effective date of acts without emergency clauses ties to the close of the referendum window. Richardson v. Martin, 2014 Ark. 429, 444 S.W.3d 855, supports rolling the deadline to the next business day when the 90-day mark falls on a weekend or holiday.
What this means for you
Business owners and compliance officers
If you're tracking 2025 Arkansas legislation for compliance, your default assumption is August 5, 2025 as the effective date. That covers any act that:
- Doesn't have an emergency clause (look for one explicitly declaring an emergency and stating the act will become effective on approval)
- Doesn't specify its own effective date (look for "this Act becomes effective on [date]" language)
Some acts of the 2025 session do have emergency clauses (notably Act 602 of 2025, which went into effect April 14, 2025) or specified effective dates. Read each act carefully to determine which category it falls into.
State agencies
Plan implementation for August 5, 2025 for any non-emergency act of the 2025 session. Forms, training materials, and publication updates should be on a calendar that hits effective date.
Legal publishers and database operators
When you tag effective dates in your databases for 2025 acts of the 95th General Assembly, the default for non-emergency acts is August 5, 2025. Build that into your effective-date stamping logic.
Lobbyists and policy advocates
Acts that mattered to your clients took effect August 5, 2025 unless you got an emergency clause attached. If you wanted faster effect, an emergency clause needs a two-thirds vote in each house and explicit statement of the necessity. Acts that pass without that have a known three-month delay between passage and effect.
Citizens following Arkansas law
For every 2025 Arkansas law that doesn't say otherwise, the rule "the law went into effect 90+ days after the session ended" gives you August 5, 2025. That's what the AG concluded.
Common questions
Q: What's the rule for acts with an emergency clause?
An emergency clause requires a two-thirds vote in each house and a statement of the necessity. If the bill passes with the emergency clause, the act becomes effective immediately upon the Governor's approval (or as the act specifies). The Arkansas Constitution requires that the vote on the emergency clause be a separate roll-call vote, taken at least 24 hours after the bill itself passes.
Q: What if the act specifies its own effective date?
The act controls. If the act says "this section takes effect January 1, 2026," that's the effective date for that section. The 90-day-after-adjournment default applies only when the act is silent.
Q: Why is the referendum window 90 days?
Article 5, § 1 of the Arkansas Constitution gives voters 90 days "after the final adjournment of the session" to file a referendum petition. That's a constitutional deadline, not statutory.
Q: Does this rule change session by session?
The rule is constant. The specific date depends on when the session ends. The 95th General Assembly's regular session ended May 5, 2025, so the calculation produced August 5, 2025. A different session ending on a different date would produce a different default effective date.
Q: I'm an attorney and a client asks "when does this 2025 act take effect?" What's my workflow?
(1) Read the act for an emergency clause. If yes, effective on Governor's approval. (2) Read the act for a specified effective date. If yes, that's the date. (3) If neither, default is August 5, 2025 for the regular session of the 95th General Assembly. For special sessions or future regular sessions, redo the calculation: adjournment date + 90 days + roll to next business day if needed + 1 day.
Q: What about the 24-hour rule on emergency-clause votes?
Article 5, § 1 (as amended) requires the vote on an emergency clause to occur at least 24 hours after the bill itself passes. This is a procedural requirement that applies to the General Assembly's own internal voting timeline. Compliance with the 24-hour rule is what makes the emergency clause valid.
Background and statutory framework
The Arkansas Constitution at article 5, § 1 (initiative and referendum) gives voters the power to file referendum petitions against acts of the General Assembly. The 90-day referendum-petition window runs from "the final adjournment of the session." During that window, the act is subject to being suspended pending a referendum vote.
The leading case on the relationship between the referendum window and the effective date of acts is Fulkerson v. Refunding Board, 201 Ark. 957, 147 S.W.2d 980 (1941). Under Fulkerson, an act without an emergency clause is not effective until the referendum window has expired without a petition being filed. The day after the deadline is the operative effective date.
The "next business day" rule for deadlines that fall on weekends or holidays comes from Richardson v. Martin, 2014 Ark. 429, 444 S.W.3d 855. The court there extended a ballot-initiative-petition deadline that fell on a legal holiday to the next business day. The same principle applies to referendum-petition deadlines, which is why the AG rolled August 3, 2025 (Sunday) forward to August 4, 2025 (Monday).
The 95th General Assembly's regular session adjourned sine die ("without day," meaning final adjournment) on May 5, 2025. Counting begins the next day, May 6, 2025. Day 90 is Sunday, August 3, 2025. The deadline rolls to Monday, August 4, 2025. The effective date is Tuesday, August 5, 2025.
For comparison, Act 602 of 2025 had an emergency clause and took effect April 14, 2025, when the Governor approved it. Act 154 of 2025 (which amended A.C.A. § 7-9-107 to allow rejection of measures conflicting with federal law) lacked an emergency clause and would also have taken effect August 5, 2025.
This opinion is foundational for the AG's other 2025 opinions that need to identify effective dates of specific acts. AGOp. 2025-019, for example, references this opinion for the August 5, 2025 effective date of Act 673 of 2025.
Citations
- Ark. Const. art. 5, § 1 (initiative and referendum, including 90-day petition window and 24-hour emergency-clause vote rule)
- Fulkerson v. Refunding Board, 201 Ark. 957, 962, 147 S.W.2d 980, 983 (1941)
- Richardson v. Martin, 2014 Ark. 429, 6, 444 S.W.3d 855, 859
Source
Original opinion text
Opinion No. 2025-032
May 12, 2025
The Honorable Cole Jester
Secretary of State
500 Woodlane Street
State Capitol, Suite 256
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
Dear Secretary Jester:
I am writing in response to your request for my opinion on the effective date of acts passed without an emergency clause or other specified effective date at the regular session of the 95th Arkansas General Assembly, which adjourned sine die May 5, 2025. As explained below, the effective date is August 5, 2025.
Under the Arkansas Constitution, acts without an emergency clause or a specified effective date become effective the day after the deadline to file a referendum petition. Referenda petitions must be filed within 90 days "after the final adjournment of the session." The 90-day window begins on the first full day after adjournment. If the 90th day falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline extends to the next business day.
In this case, the 90-day window starts on May 6 (the first full day after final adjournment) and would conclude on Sunday, August 3, 2025. But since Sunday is not a day on which referenda petitions can be filed, the deadline extends to the next business day: Monday, August 4, 2025. Thus, acts without an emergency clause or a specified effective date become effective on Tuesday, August 5, 2025.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Kelly Summerside prepared this opinion, which I hereby approve.
Sincerely,
TIM GRIFFIN
Attorney General