Section III Section 29

Constitution

Effective - 27 Feb 1945, see footnote   

  III Section 29.  Effective date of laws — exceptions — procedure in emergencies and upon recess. — No law passed by the general assembly, except an appropriation act, shall take effect until ninety days after the adjournment of the session in either odd-numbered or even-numbered years at which it was enacted.  However, in case of an emergency which must be expressed in the preamble or in the body of the act, the general assembly by a two-thirds vote of the members elected to each house, taken by yeas and nays may otherwise direct; and further except that, if the general assembly recesses for thirty days or more it may prescribe by joint resolution that laws previously passed and not effective shall take effect ninety days from the beginning of the recess.

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Source: Const. of 1875, Art. IV, § 36 (Amended November 3, 1970).

(1952) Words "laws previously passed and not effective" in last proviso includes those bills passed by both houses of the general assembly, and signed by the presiding officers thereof, prior to the beginning of a recess, even though such bills have not been approved by the governor prior to the recess. State ex rel. Moore v. Toberman, 363 Mo. 245, 250 S.W.2d 701.

(1991) "Later in time" rule of statutory construction does not apply when sections are passed in the same legislative session and neither has an emergency clause. Berdella v. Pender, 821 S.W.2d 846 (Mo.banc 1991).