When did ordinary bills from Kentucky’s 2001 legislative session take effect?

Plain-English summary

Kentucky’s 2001 General Assembly adjourned on March 22. The Attorney General applied Section 55 of the Kentucky Constitution to determine when ordinary acts from that session became law. The adjournment day did not count toward the required 90 full days. March 23 was day one, June 20 was day 90, and the acts covered by the opinion took effect at the first moment of June 21, 2001.

That date did not cover general appropriation bills or acts containing emergency or delayed effective-date provisions. The opinion calculated the general date for the 2001 session; it did not identify the effective date of a particular excluded bill.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2001. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: What was the effective date of ordinary Kentucky laws passed in the 2001 regular session? A: The Attorney General calculated the first moment of Thursday, June 21, 2001.

Q: Did the day the Kentucky legislature adjourned count toward the 90 days? A: No. The opinion excluded March 22, 2001, the final adjournment day, and counted March 23 as the first day.

Q: Did the June 21 date apply to emergency legislation?
A: No. The opinion excluded acts with emergency provisions, along with general appropriation bills and acts with delayed effective dates.

Background and statutory framework

Section 55 of the Kentucky Constitution generally delayed an act until 90 days after adjournment of the session in which it passed. The opinion explained that the 90th day had to expire so that 90 full days passed after adjournment. It cited OAG 00-4 for that counting method and applied it to the 2001 session.

Citations and references

Constitution: Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky.

Prior AG opinion: OAG 00-4.

Source

• Landing page: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d40ce306-b21c-4805-8ee7-546e86f3f587/
• Original PDF: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/download/file/IO_d40ce306-b21c-4805-8ee7-546e86f3f587

Original opinion text

OAG 01-4
April 6, 2001

Subject:

Effective Date of Certain Legislation, 2001 Regular
Session,
Kentucky General Assembly

Requested by:

Robert S. Sherman

Written by:

Gerard R. Gerhard

Syllabus:

In keeping with Section 55 of the Constitution
of
Kentucky, the effective date of legislation passed during the 2001
Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, other than general appropriation bills, and acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, is the first moment of Thursday, June 21, 2001.

Constitutional
provision construed:
OAGs cited:

Constitution of Kentucky Section 55

00-4

Opinion of the Attorney General
By letter of March 23, 2001, you asked, in substance, that this
office advise on the effective date of legislation not involving an emergency or delayed effective date, passed during the 2001 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly.

OAG 01-4
Page 2

The legislature adjourned “sine die” on March 22, 2001.
As discussed below, the effective date of legislation passed during the 2001 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, other than general appropriation bills, and acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, is the first moment of Thursday, June 21, 2001. Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky provides: No act, except general appropriation bills, shall become a law until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was passed, except in cases of emergency, when, by the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to each House of the General Assembly, by a yea and nay vote entered upon their journals, an act may become a law when approved by the governor, but the reasons for the emergency that justifies this action must be set out at length in the journal of each House. (Emphasis added.) “[U]ntil ninety days after the adjournment of the session,” as used in Section 55 of Kentucky’s Constitution (above), indicates that the day of adjournment (meaning the day of final adjournment for the session, termed “adjournment sine die”) is to be excluded in computing the 90 day period set forth in the above cited Constitutional provision, and that the 90th day shall be included in the period, in order that 90 full days shall have passed after adjournment of the session, before certain legislation becomes effective. See, for example, OAG 00-4. Applying the analysis described above to the 2001 Regular Session, the General Assembly having adjourned sine die on Thursday, March 22, 2001, we find the following, regarding legislation other than

OAG 01-4
Page 3

general appropriation bills or acts containing emergency or delayed
effective date provisions: The first day of the 90 day period after the
session is Friday March 23, 2001, and the 90th day of that period is
Wednesday, June 20, 2001. Accordingly, when the last moment of that
90th day has expired, ninety full days will have passed after the adjournment sine die of the 2001 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. It follows that legislation (except for general appropriation measures and those containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions) passed during the 2001 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly will be effective on the first moment of Thursday, June 21, 2001. Albert B. Chandler III Attorney General

Gerard R. Gerhard
Assistant Attorney General

cc: Bill Van Arsdall
Acting Reviser of Statutes
Legislative Research Commission