When did ordinary Kentucky laws passed in the 1997 special session take effect?

Plain-English summary

Kentucky's Attorney General calculated that legislation passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session took effect at the first moment of Friday, August 29, 1997, after 90 full days had passed from final adjournment. The answer applied to acts without a different effective-date rule. General appropriation bills and acts with emergency or delayed effective-date provisions were outside the calculation.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1997. 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.

Historical summary

How the 90 days were counted

The session adjourned on Friday, May 30, 1997. The AG read Kentucky Constitution § 55's phrase “until ninety days after the adjournment” to exclude the day of final adjournment. May 31 was day one, and August 28 was day 90. Because the full 90th day had to pass, the covered acts took effect at the start of August 29.

Which acts the answer covered

The opinion expressly excluded general appropriation bills and acts containing emergency or delayed effective-date provisions. It did not supply an effective date for any particular excluded act.

Common questions

Did an ordinary act from the 1997 First Extraordinary Session take effect on August 28?

No. The AG treated August 28 as the 90th full day after adjournment and placed the effective time at the first moment of August 29, 1997.

Did the same date apply to an act with an emergency clause?

The opinion excluded acts with emergency effective-date provisions from its calculation. It also excluded general appropriation bills and acts with delayed effective dates.

Background and statutory framework

Don Cetrulo, director of the Legislative Research Commission, asked for the effective date after the session's final adjournment on May 30, 1997. The AG interpreted Kentucky Constitution § 55 and referred to its earlier OAG 96-19 for the method of excluding adjournment day and including the 90th day in the waiting period.

Citations and references

• Kentucky Constitution § 55: the 90-day rule and the stated exceptions.
• OAG 96-19: earlier opinion cited for the counting method.

Source

• Landing page: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_d8a09356-ad85-4b99-9ea3-c4bb95df71e7/
• Original PDF: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/download/file/IO_d8a09356-ad85-4b99-9ea3-c4bb95df71e7

Original opinion text

OAG 97-23
July 28, 1997

Subject:

Effective Date of Certain Legislation Passed During the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly

Written by:

Gerard Gerhard

Requested by:

Hon. Don Cetrulo, Director, Legislative
Research Commission

Syllabus:

In accordance with Section 55 of the
Constitution of Kentucky, the effective date of legislation passed by the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, except for general appropriation measures and those containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, is the first moment of Friday, August 29, 1997, since 90 full days will then have passed after final adjournment of the session on Friday, May 30, 1997.

OAGs cited:

OAG 96-19.

Constitutional
Sections Construed:

Kentucky Const. § 55.

Opinion of the Attorney General
The following question, in substance, has been presented: What is the effective date of legislation, other than general

OAG 97-23
Page 2
appropriation bills and acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, that session having finally adjourned on Friday, May 30, 1997? As discussed below, the effective date of legislation, other than general appropriation bills and acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions, passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly, is the first moment of Friday, August 29, 1997. Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky provides: No act, except general appropriation bills, shall become 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” (emphasis added), as used in Section 55 of the Constitution of Kentucky (see 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 90 th day shall be included in the period, in order that 90 full days shall pass after enactment of certain legislation, before the legislation becomes effective. See OAG 96-19. Applying the analysis described above to the 1997 First Extraordinary Session, the General Assembly having adjourned sine die on Friday, May 30, 1997, we find the following, regarding legislation other than general appropriation bills or acts containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions: The first day of the 90 day period after the session in question is Saturday, May 31, 1997, and the 90th day of that period is Thursday, August 28, 1997. When the last moment of the 90th day after adjournment sine die has passed, ninety full days will have passed after final adjournment. It follows that legislation (except for general appropriation measures and

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Page 3
those containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions) passed during the 1997 First Extraordinary Session of the Kentucky General Assembly will be effective on the first moment of Friday, August 29, 1997. A. B. CHANDLER III ATTORNEY GENERAL Gerard R. Gerhard Assistant Attorney General