48 U.S.C. § 1573
Section 1573 · Time, frequency, and duration of regular sessions; special sessions; place of holding
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Dennis v. Luis (1984)
Most recently applied in Pirtle v. Legis. Council (June 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Regular sessions of the legislature shall be held annually, commencing on the second Monday in January (unless the legislature shall by law fix a different date), and shall continue for such term as the legislature may provide. The Governor may call special sessions of the legislature at any time when in his opinion the public interest may require it. No legislation shall be considered at any special session other than that specified in the call therefor or in any special message by the Governor to the legislature while in such session. All sessions of the legislature shall be open to the public.
(b) Sessions of the legislature shall be held in the capital of the Virgin Islands at Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1968—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 90–496 substituted provisions that regular sessions of the legislature shall continue for such term as the legislature may provide for provisions that regular sessions shall continue for not more than sixty consecutive calendar days in any calendar year, with the proviso that the regular annual session for 1959, 1960, and 1961 shall commence on the second Monday in April and shall continue for not more than sixty consecutive calendar days, struck out provisions that any special session called by the Governor shall continue for not more than fifteen calendar days, with the aggregate of any such special sessions during any calendar year not to exceed thirty calendar days, and inserted provision opening to the public all sessions of the legislature.
1959—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 86–289 substituted “January (unless the legislature shall by law fix a different date)” for “April” and “regular annual session for each of the years 1959, 1960, and 1961, respectively, shall commence on the second Monday in April” for “annual session for 1955 shall commence on the second Monday in January 1955”.
Effective Date of 1968 Amendment
Section 1 of Pub. L. 90–496 provided that the amendment made by that section is effective on date of enactment of Pub. L. 90–496, which was approved Aug. 23, 1968.