State Constitutional Law in 1928–1929

No new constitution was adopted in any state in 1928–29, and relatively few legal problems concerning the amending process were decided during the year. The South Carolina court upheld an amendment proposed by the legislature and ratified by the voters notwithstanding attacks based on the inclusion of several subjects in the resolution proposing the amendment, the failure of the officers charged with the preparation of the ballots to print the amendment in full, and the absence of the title of the amendment from the journals of the legislature, the title being entered on the journals only as part of the resolution proposing the amendment. Such a provision as that contained in Article in, Section 17, of the constitution of South Carolina providing that “every act or resolution having the force of law shall relate to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title,” might well be held not to apply to resolutions proposing amendments to the constitution, but to be restricted in application to ordinary acts of legislation, thus distinguishing acts of legislation from constituent acts. The court did not consider this distinction, but settled the case on its merits, deciding that the resolution did not contain separate subjects, that the ballots need not contain the entire text of the amendment, and that it was sufficient if the resolution proposing the amendment containing the title was printed in the journals of the two houses.