The California Assembly floor, image by Kit LeongANALYSIS – As a general matter, bills are taken up on the California Assembly or Senate Floors in file item order, unless some special reason exists to do otherwise. There are five main procedural items to keep in mind when a bill is pending on either Floor.
Seal of the State of California, image by Aaron KohrAnalysis – With the final weeks of Session upon us, several procedural items that regularly occur on the Floors of the California Legislature may be in order, from how many times a bill can be reconsidered to how many times it can be placed on call.
The rules of consent, image by anabarauliaANALYSIS – For those tuning into the Senate and Assembly Floor Sessions during deadline weeks, you are likely to hear the terms “consent,” (both floors), “special consent” (Senate Floor), and “batching” (Assembly Floor). What do those terms mean? How does batching differ from the consent calendar? What is the difference between consent and special consent? Chris Micheli explains it all for you.
The California seal, photo by Cheri Alguire via ShutterstockANALYSIS – We are at the time of the California Legislative Session where bills are returning for a concurrence vote in their house of origin. Concurrence is the method by which the house of origin agrees to the amendments that were made to a bill by the other house.
California law, image by Vitalii VodolazskyiANALYSIS – One of the controversial occurrences during the annual California Legislative Session is so-called “gut-and-amend” bills, or replacing the bill’s contents with a subject which is entirely unrelated to the original contents of the bill. Such amendments raise the legislative issue of “germaneness,” which refers to whether a proposed amendment is relevant to the subject matter currently contained in the measure.
Seal of the State of California, image by Aaron KohrANALYSIS – Both the Assembly and Senate of the California Legislature, like other legislative bodies, utilize several rules, as well as customs and practices, for the purpose of ensuring that legislative deliberations and debate operate in a civil and orderly way. The individual house rules, as well as Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure, provide guidance in this regard.
California law, image by Vitalii VodolazskyiANALYSIS – On occasion, California legislators include statements of intent, or make findings and declarations, in their bills. When reviewing these bills, readers will see that, in most instances, these statements are “uncodified,” meaning that they are not codified (i.e., placed in a Code). In more limited cases, these statements are codified along with the other, substantive statutory provisions. This raises the question whether these legislative statements should be codified or not.
California law, image by Vitalii VodolazskyiANALYSIS – The Enrolled Bill Rule is based upon the separation of powers doctrine. However, the EBR should not be used anymore to prevent a challenge that constitutional provisions or state statutes were allegedly violated when the Legislature enacted a bill.
California's lady justice, image by BreizhAtaoANALYSIS – According to the courts, the purpose of the constitutional reenactment rule, which prohibits amending a section of statute unless the section is reenacted as amended, is “to avoid enactment of statutes in terms so blind that legislators themselves are deceived in regard to their effect.”
Image by Adao via ShutterstockANALYSIS – There is often confusion regarding effective versus operative dates. Specifically, Capitol observers often inquire when a statute actually “takes effect.” When it takes effect can be different than when the statute is operative.