Single-subject rule

Single-subject rule

A single-subject rule is a general term for a section present in many state constitutions within the United States of America. It generally specifies that ballot initiatives and legislation can only deal with one main issue. Its purpose is to avoid complexity in laws, to avoid any hidden consequences that legislators or voters may miss when reading the proposed law. This in turn prevents politicians from sneaking unpopular legislation through, piggybacked on legislation which is more likely to pass.

For example, the constitution of Minnesota, Article IV, Section 17, requires that "No law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.". Conversely, neither the U.S. Congress nor the U.S. Constitution have such a rule, therefore riders which are completely unrelated to the main bill are commonplace. These amendments are often put into bills at the last minute, so that any representative which may already read the legislation before actually voting on it will not have a chance to catch it.

It has been charged that single-subject rules have been misused as a political or judicial measure to slow or nullify ballots or laws. An example of accusation of misuse of this law occurred in Colorado when a former governor made statement against a single-subject ruling. [http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3929774] The rule can also result in overly-narrow questions, that result in no substantial effects. [http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legman/elect/SgleSubRules.htm]

ignificant cases

*In July 2006, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a November 2004 amendment to the constitution of Georgia against same-sex marriage would be allowed to stand, despite also banning recognition of same-sex marriages done in other states, and banning civil unions. Additionally, voters in the referendum were only told of the same-sex marriage question, while the ballot failed to mention the other two issues, preventing voters from giving fully-informed consent. A judge had previously ruled that voters had the right to decide the issue of civil unions separately, thus putting the two issues as one violated Georgia's single-subject rule.


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