Article 4. - Legislative.


    Section 1. The Legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a General Assembly, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The style of every law shall be: "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana"; and no law shall be enacted, except by bill.

    Section 2. The Senate shall not exceed fifty, nor the House of Representatives one hundred members; and they shall be chosen by the electors of the respective districts into which the State may, from time to time, be divided.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984).

    Section 3. Senators shall be elected for the term of four years, and Representatives for the term of two years, from the day next after their general election. One half of the Senators, as nearly as possible, shall be elected biennially.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984).

    Section 4. The General Assembly may provide by law for the filling of such vacancies as may occur in the General Assembly.
(History: As Amended March 14, 1881; November 6, 1984).

    Section 5. The General Assembly elected during the year in which a federal decennial census is taken shall fix by law the number of Senators and Representatives and apportion them among districts according to the number of inhabitants in each district, as revealed by that federal decennial census. The territory in each district shall be contiguous.
(History: As amended March 14, 1881; November 6, 1984).

    Section 6.
(History: Repealed November 6, 1984).

    Section 7. No person shall be a Senator or a Representative, who, at the time of his election, is not a citizen of the United States; nor any one who has not been for two years next preceding his election, an inhabitant of this State, and, for one year next preceding his election, an inhabitant of the district whence he may be chosen. Senators shall be at least twenty-five, and Representatives at least twenty-one years of age.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984).

    Section 8. Senators and Representatives, in all cases except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, shall be privileged from arrest, during the session of the General Assembly, and in going to and returning from the same; and shall not be subject to any civil process, during the session of the General Assembly, nor during the fifteen days next before the commencement thereof. For any speech or debate in either

House, a member shall not be questioned in any other place.

    Section 9. The sessions of the General Assembly shall be held at the capitol of the State, commencing on the Tuesday next after the second Monday in January of each year in which the General Assembly meets unless a different day or place shall have been appointed by law. But if, in the opinion of the Governor, the public welfare shall require it, he may, at any time by proclamation, call a special session. The length and frequency of the sessions of the General Assembly shall be fixed by law.
(History: As Amended November 3, 1970. The schedule adopted with the 1970 amendment to Article 4, Section 9 was stricken out by the November 6, 1984, amendment).

    Section 10. Each House, when assembled, shall choose its own officers, the President of the Senate excepted; judge the elections, qualifications, and returns of its own members; determine its rules of proceeding, and sit upon its own adjournment. But neither House shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any place other than that in which it may be sitting.

    Section 11. Two-thirds of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may meet, adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members. A quorum being in attendance, if either House fail to effect an organization within the first five days thereafter, the members of the House so failing, shall be entitled to no compensation, from the end of the said five days until an organization shall have been effected.

    Section 12. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same. The yeas and nays, on any question, shall, at the request of any two members, be entered, together with the names of the members demanding the same, on the journal; Provided, that on a motion to adjourn, it shall require one-tenth of the members present to order the yeas and nays.

    Section 13. The doors of each House, and of Committees of the Whole, shall be kept open, except in such cases, as, in the opinion of either House, may require secrecy.

    Section 14. Either House may punish its members for disorderly behavior, and may, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member; but not a second time for the same cause.

    Section 15. Either House, during its session, may punish, by imprisonment, any person not a member, who shall have been guilty of disrespect to the House, by disorderly or contemptuous behavior, in its presence; but such imprisonment shall not, at any one time, exceed twenty-four hours.

    Section 16. Each House shall have all powers, necessary for a

branch of the Legislative department of a free and independent State.

    Section 17. Bills may originate in either House, but may be amended or rejected in the other; except that bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.

    Section 18. Every bill shall be read, by title, on three several days, in each House; unless, in case of emergency, two-thirds of the House where such bill may be pending shall, by a vote of yeas and nays, deem it expedient to dispense with this rule; but the reading of a bill, by title, on its final passage, shall, in no case, be dispensed with; and the vote on the passage of every bill or joint resolution shall be taken by yeas and nays.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984).

    Section 19. An act, except an act for the codification, revision or rearrangement of laws, shall be confined to one subject and matters properly connected therewith.
(History: As Amended November 8, 1960; November 5, 1974).

    Section 20. Every act and joint resolution shall be plainly worded, avoiding, as far as practicable, the use of technical terms.

    Section 21.
(History: Repealed November 8, 1960).

    Section 22. The General Assembly shall not pass local or special laws:
    Providing for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors;
    Regulating the practice in courts of justice;
    Providing for changing the venue in civil and criminal cases;
    Granting divorces;
    Changing the names of persons;
    Providing for laying out, opening, and working on, highways, and for the election or appointment of supervisors;
    Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys, and public squares;
    Summoning and empaneling grand and petit juries, and providing for their compensation;
    Regulating county and township business;
    Regulating the election of county and township officers and their compensation;
    Providing for the assessment and collection of taxes for State, county, township, or road purposes;
    Providing for the support of common schools, or the preservation of school funds;
    Relating to fees or salaries, except that the laws may be so made as to grade the compensation of officers in proportion to the population and the necessary services required;
    Relating to interest on money;
    Providing for opening and conducting elections of State, county, or township officers, and designating the places of voting;


    Providing for the sale of real estate belonging to minors or other persons laboring under legal disabilities, by executors, administrators, guardians, or trustees.
(History: As Amended March 14, 1881; November 6, 1984).

    Section 23. In all the cases enumerated in the preceding section, and in all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, all laws shall be general, and of uniform operation throughout the State.

    Section 24. Provision may be made, by general law, for bringing suit against the State; but no special law authorizing such suit to be brought, or making compensation to any person claiming damages against the State, shall ever be passed.
(History: As Amended November 6, 1984).

    Section 25. A majority of all the members elected to each House, shall be necessary to pass every bill or joint resolution; and all bills and joint resolutions so passed, shall be signed by the Presiding Officers of the respective Houses.

    Section 26. Any member of either House shall have the right to protest, and to have his protest, with his reasons for dissent, entered on the journal.

    Section 27. Every statute shall be a public law, unless otherwise declared in the statute itself.

    Section 28. No act shall take effect, until the same shall have been published and circulated in the several counties of the State, by authority, except in case of emergency, which emergency shall be declared in the preamble, or in the body, of the law.

    Section 29. The members of the General Assembly shall receive for their services a compensation to be fixed by law; but no increase of compensation shall take effect during the session at which such increase may be made.
(History: As Amended November 3, 1970. The schedule adopted with the 1970 amendment to Article 4, Section 9 was stricken out by the November 6, 1984, amendment).

    Section 30. No Senator or Representative shall, during the term for which he may have been elected, be eligible to any office, the election to which is vested in the General Assembly; nor shall he be appointed to any civil office of profit, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during such term; but this latter provision shall not be construed to apply to any office elective by the People.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.