Attorney Ali Noland speaks to a group of students in March 2023.
At the top of the second day of Gov. Sarah Sanders’ special legislative session Tuesday, the state Senate voted on a handful of bills that made it out of committee Monday. Though several bills had emergency clauses attached, the Senate voted just one time for both the approval of the bill and the approval of the emergency clause.
An emergency clause is a piece of language that allows a bill to take effect as soon as it’s signed by the governor rather than going through the the typical 90-day waiting period for new laws. The legislature has long held votes in this way when convenient. But the process of combining the bill and emergency clause vote together may violate the state constitution, which mandates “separate” votes.
Attorney Ali Noland filed a lawsuit this summer over over the effective date of Arkansas LEARNS, the governor’s education bill, which was passed into law this spring. Noland alleged that the LEARNS emergency clause was invalid because legislators didn’t hold a vote on it separate from the vote on the bill.
A Pulaski County circuit court ruled in favor of Noland, and the state appealed to the Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on the issue. The question regarding the LEARNS emergency clause specifically has been resolved: Since 90 days have now passed since the law was signed, it is in effect no matter what. But the larger constitutional question is still alive, and the plain language of the constitution requires “separate” votes, no matter the legislature’s longstanding practice.
Still, the Senate has continued to hold a single vote for both.
Noland (who frequently writes for the Arkansas Times) provided this comment Tuesday:
A circuit court in Arkansas has ruled that simultaneously voting on a bill and its emergency clause fails to meet the constitutional requirement that the legislature hold ‘separate’ votes on emergency clauses. That court ruling still stands and has not been stayed or overturned. The fact that the Arkansas General Assembly is choosing to use the same unconstitutional process now is an intentional act of defiance against the Arkansas judiciary and the Constitution.
