State Legislatures and Distrust

Abstract

This chapter explains the myriad restrictions that state constitutions place on state legislatures—such as single-subject rules, clear-title, and public-purpose clauses—and the kinds of problems that prompted them. The clear-title rule requires the subject of each bill to be expressed plainly in its title. The single-subject requirement ensures that each bill enacted by the legislature contains just one subject. The original-purpose requirement requires a final bill to line up with the stated purpose of the original bill. These limitations grew naturally out of a preoccupation of the Jacksonian era, curbing special interests. The US Constitution does not place comparable restrictions on Congress.