NEW YORK CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE III
LEGISLATURE
Art. III §1 | LEGISLATIVE POWER
Art. III §2 | NUMBER AND TERMS OF SENATORS AND ASSEMBLYMEN
Notes
Art. III §3 | SENATE DISTRICTS
Notes
Art. III §4 | READJUSTMENTS AND REAPPORTIONMENTS; WHEN FEDERAL CENSUS TO CONTROL
No county shall have four or more senators unless it shall have a full ratio for each senator. No county shall have more than one-third of all the senators; and no two counties or the territory thereof as now organized, which are adjoining counties, or which are separated only by public waters, shall have more than one-half of all the senators.
(b) The independent redistricting commission established pursuant to section five-b of this article shall prepare a redistricting plan to establish senate, assembly, and congressional districts every ten years commencing in two thousand twenty-one, and shall submit to the legislature such plan and the implementing legislation therefor on or before January first or as soon as practicable thereafter but no later than January fifteenth in the year ending in two beginning in two thousand twenty-two. The redistricting plans for the assembly and the senate shall be contained in and voted upon by the legislature in a single bill, and the congressional district plan may be included in the same bill if the legislature chooses to do so. The implementing legislation shall be voted upon, without amendment, by the senate or the assembly and if approved by the first house voting upon it, such legislation shall be delivered to the other house immediately to be voted upon without amendment. If approved by both houses, such legislation shall be presented to the governor for action.
If either house shall fail to approve the legislation implementing the first redistricting plan, or the governor shall veto such legislation and the legislature shall fail to override such veto, each house or the governor if he or she vetoes it, shall notify the commission that such legislation has been disapproved. Within fifteen days of such notification and in no case later than February twenty-eighth, the redistricting commission shall prepare and submit to the legislature a second redistricting plan and the necessary implementing legislation for such plan. Such legislation shall be voted upon, without amendment, by the senate or the assembly and, if approved by the first house voting upon it, such legislation shall be delivered to the other house immediately to be voted upon without amendment. If approved by both houses, such legislation shall be presented to the governor for action.
If either house shall fail to approve the legislation implementing the second redistricting plan, or the governor shall veto such legislation and the legislature shall fail to override such veto, each house shall introduce such implementing legislation with any amendments each house of the legislature deems necessary. All such amendments shall comply with the provisions of this article. If approved by both houses, such legislation shall be presented to the governor for action.
All votes by the senate or assembly on any redistricting plan legislation pursuant to this article shall be conducted in accordance with the following rules:
(2) In the event that the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of two different political parties, approval of legislation submitted by the independent redistricting commission pursuant to subdivision (g) of section five-b of this article shall require the vote in support of its passage by at least sixty percent of the members elected to each house.
(3) In the event that the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of the same political party, approval of legislation submitted by the independent redistricting commission pursuant to subdivision (f) or (g) of section five-b of this article shall require the vote in support of its passage by at least two-thirds of the members elected to each house.
(2) To the extent practicable, districts shall contain as nearly as may be an equal number of inhabitants. For each district that deviates from this requirement, the commission shall provide a specific public explanation as to why such deviation exists.
(3) Each district shall consist of contiguous territory.
(4) Each district shall be as compact in form as practicable.
(5) Districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties. The commission shall consider the maintenance of cores of existing districts, of pre-existing political subdivisions, including counties, cities, and towns, and of communities of interest.
(6) In drawing senate districts, towns or blocks which, from their location may be included in either of two districts, shall be so placed as to make said districts most nearly equal in number of inhabitants. The requirements that senate districts not divide counties or towns, as well as the 'block-on-border' and 'town-on-border' rules, shall remain in effect.
During the preparation of the redistricting plan, the independent redistricting commission shall conduct not less than one public hearing on proposals for the redistricting of congressional and state legislative districts in each of the following
(e) The process for redistricting congressional and state legislative districts established by this section and sections five and five-b of this article shall govern redistricting in this state except to the extent that a court is required to order the adoption of, or changes to, a redistricting plan as a remedy for a violation of law.
A reapportionment plan and the districts contained in such plan shall be in force until the effective date of a plan based upon the subsequent federal decennial census taken in a year ending in zero unless modified pursuant to court order.
Art. III §5 | APPORTIONMENT OF ASSEMBLYMEN; CREATION OF ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS
The quotient obtained by dividing the whole number of inhabitants of the state, excluding aliens, by the number of members of assembly, shall be the ratio for apportionment, which shall be made as follows: One member of assembly shall be apportioned to every county, including Fulton and Hamilton as one county, containing less than the ratio and one-half over. Two members shall be apportioned to every other county. The remaining members of assembly shall be apportioned to the counties having more than two ratios according to the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens. Members apportioned on remainders shall be apportioned to the counties having the highest remainders in the order thereof respectively. No county shall have more members of assembly than a county having a greater number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.
The assembly districts6, including the present ones, as existing immediately before the enactment of a law making an apportionment of members of assembly among the counties, shall continue to be the assembly districts of the state until the expiration of the terms of members then in office, except for the purpose of an election of members of assembly for full terms beginning at such expirations.
In any county entitled to more than one member, the board of supervisors, and in any city embracing an entire county and having no board of supervisors, the common council, or if there be none, the body exercising the powers of a common council, shall assemble at such times as the legislature making an apportionment shall prescribe, and divide such counties into assembly districts as nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as may be, of convenient and contiguous territory in as compact form as practicable, each of which shall be wholly within a senate district formed under the same apportionment, equal to the number of members of assembly to which such county shall be entitled, and shall cause to be filed in the office of the secretary of state and of the clerk of such county, a description of such districts, specifying the number of each district and of the inhabitants thereof, excluding aliens, according to the census or enumeration used as the population basis for the formation of such districts; and such apportionment and districts shall remain unaltered until after the next reapportionment of members of assembly, except that the board of supervisors of any county containing a town having more than a ratio of apportionment and one-half over may alter the assembly districts in a senate district containing such town at any time on or before March first, nineteen hundred forty-six. In counties having more than one senate district, the same number of assembly districts shall be put in each senate district, unless the assembly districts cannot be evenly divided among the senate districts of any county, in which case one more assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such county having the largest, or one less assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such county having the smallest number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as the case may require. Nothing in this section shall prevent the division, at any time, of counties and towns and the erection of new towns by the legislature.
An apportionment by the legislature, or other body, shall be subject to review by the supreme court, at the suit of any citizen, under such reasonable regulations as the legislature may prescribe; and any court before which a cause may be pending involving an apportionment, shall give precedence thereto over all other causes and proceedings, and if said court be not in session it shall convene promptly for the disposition of the same. The court shall render its decision within sixty days after a petition is filed. In any judicial proceeding relating to redistricting of congressional or state legislative districts, any law establishing congressional or state legislative districts found to violate the provisions of this article shall be invalid in whole or in part. In the event that a court finds such a violation, the legislature shall have a full and reasonable opportunity to correct the law's legal infirmities.
Notes
Art. III §5a | DEFINITION OF INHABITANTS
Art. III §5b | INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION
(2) two members shall be appointed by the speaker of the assembly;
(3) two members shall be appointed by the minority leader of the senate;
(4) two members shall be appointed by the minority leader of the assembly;
(5) two members shall be appointed by the eight members appointed pursuant to paragraphs (1) through (4) of this subdivision by a vote of not less than five members in favor of such appointment, and these two members shall not have been enrolled in the preceding five years in either of the two political parties that contain the largest or second largest number of enrolled voters within the state;
(6) one member shall be designated chair of the commission by a majority of the members appointed pursuant to paragraphs (1) through (5) of this subdivision to convene and preside over each meeting of the commission.
(2) be or have been a state officer or employee or legislative employee as defined in section seventy-three of the public officers law;
(3) be or have been a registered lobbyist in New York state;
(4) be or have been a political party chairman, as defined in paragraph (k) of subdivision one of section seventy-three of the public officers law;
(5) be the spouse of a statewide elected official or of any member of the United States Congress, or of the state legislature.
(d) Vacancies in the membership of the commission shall be filled within thirty days in the manner provided for in the original appointments.
(e) The legislature shall provide by law for the compensation of the members of the independent redistricting commission, including compensation for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.
(f) A minimum of five members of the independent redistricting commission shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of any business or the exercise of any power of such commission prior to the appointment of the two commission members appointed pursuant to paragraph (5) of subdivision (a) of this section, and a minimum of seven members shall constitute a quorum after such members have been appointed, and no exercise of any power of the independent redistricting commission shall occur without the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the members, provided that, in order to approve any redistricting plan and implementing legislation, the following rules shall apply:
(2) In the event that the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of two different political parties, approval of a redistricting plan by the commission for submission to the legislature shall require the vote in support of its approval by at least seven members including at least one member appointed by the speaker of the assembly and one member appointed by the temporary president of the senate.
(h)
(ii) In the event that the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of the same political party, the coexecutive directors shall be approved by a majority of the commission that includes at least one appointee by each of the legislative leaders.
(3) In the event that the commission is unable to appoint one or both of the co-executive directors within forty-five days of the establishment of a quorum of seven commissioners, the following procedure shall be followed:
(ii) In the event that the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of the same political party, within ten days the speaker's and temporary president's appointees on the commission shall together appoint one co-executive director, and the two minority leaders' appointees on the commission shall together appoint the other coexecutive director.
Art. III §6 | COMPENSATION, ALLOWANCES AND TRAVELING EXPENSES OF MEMBERS
Art. III §7 | QUALIFICATIONS OF MEMBERS; PROHIBITIONS ON CERTAIN CIVIL APPOINTMENTS; ACCEPTANCE TO VACATE SEAT
Art. III §8 | TIME OF ELECTIONS OF MEMBERS
Art. III §9 | POWERS OF EACH HOUSE
Art. III §10 | JOURNALS; OPEN SESSIONS; ADJOURNMENTS
Art. III §11 | MEMBERS NOT TO BE QUESTIONED FOR SPEECHES
Art. III §12 | BILLS MAY ORIGINATE IN EITHER HOUSE; MAY BE AMENDED BY THE OTHER
Art. III §13 | ENACTING CLAUSE OF BILLS; NO LAW TO BE ENACTED EXCEPT BY BILL
Art. III §14 | MANNER OF PASSING BILLS; MESSAGE OF NECESSITY FOR IMMEDIATE VOTE
For purposes of this section, a bill shall be deemed to be printed and upon the desks of the members if: it is set forth in a legible electronic format by electronic means, and it is available for review in such format at the desks of the members. For purposes of this section "electronic means" means any method of transmission of information between computers or other machines designed for the purpose of sending and receiving such transmissions and which: allows the recipient to reproduce the information transmitted in a tangible medium of expression; and does not permit additions, deletions or other changes to be made without leaving an adequate record thereof.
Art. III §15 | PRIVATE OR LOCAL BILLS TO EMBRACE ONLY ONE SUBJECT, EXPRESSED IN TITLE
Art. III §16 | EXISTING LAW NOT TO BE MADE APPLICABLE BY REFERENCE
Art. III §17 | CASES IN WHICH PRIVATE OR LOCAL BILLS SHALL NOT BE PASSED
Laying out, opening, altering, working or discontinuing roads, highways or alleys, or for draining swamps or other low lands. Locating or changing county seats.
Providing for changes of venue in civil or criminal cases.
Incorporating villages.
Providing for election of members of boards of supervisors.
Selecting, drawing, summoning or empaneling grand or petit jurors.
Regulating the rate of interest on money.
The opening and conducting of elections or designating places of voting.
Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentages or allowances of public officers, during the term for which said officers are elected or appointed.
Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks.
Granting to any private corporation, association or individual any exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever.
Granting to any person, association, firm or corporation, an exemption from taxation on real or personal property.
Providing for the building of bridges, except over the waters forming a part of the boundaries of the state, by other than a municipal or other public corporation or a public agency of the state.
Art. III §18 | EXTRAORDINARY SESSIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE; POWER TO CONVENE ON LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE
Art. III §19 | PRIVATE CLAIMS NOT TO BE AUDITED BY LEGISLATURE; CLAIMS BARRED BY LAPSE OF TIME
Art. III §20 | TWO-THIRDS BILLS
Art. III §21 | CERTAIN SECTIONS NOT TO APPLY TO BILLS RECOMMENDED BY CERTAIN COMMISSIONERS OR PUBLIC AGENCIES
Art. III §22 | TAX LAWS TO STATE TAX AND OBJECT DISTINCTLY; DEFINITION OF INCOME FOR INCOME TAX PURPOSES BY REFERENCE TO FEDERAL LAWS AUTHORIZED
Notwithstanding the foregoing or any other provision of this constitution, the legislature, in any law imposing a tax or taxes on, in respect to or measured by income, may define the income on, in respect to or by which such tax or taxes are imposed or measured, by reference to any provision of the laws of the United States as the same may be or become effective at any time or from time to time, and may prescribe exceptions or modifications to any such provision.
Art. III §23 | WHEN YEAS AND NAYS NECESSARY; THREE-FIFTHS TO CONSTITUTE QUORUM
Art. III §24 | PRISON LABOR; CONTRACT SYSTEM ABOLISHED
Art. III §25 | EMERGENCY GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS; LEGISLATURE TO PROVIDE FOR
(2) to adopt such other measures as may be necessary and proper for insuring the continuity of governmental operations.
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