one-subject rule
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 279 U.S. 340 - Posados v. Warner, Barnes & Co. · 1929Most cited · 75 citing opinions
The purpose is to prevent the inclusion of incongruous and unrelated matters in the same measure and to guard against inadvertence, stealth and fraud in legislation. Courts strictly enforce such provisions in cases that fall within the reasons on which they rest. But the courts disregard mere verbal inaccuracies, resolve doubts in favor of validity, and hold that, in order to warrant the setting aside of enactments for failure to comply with the rule, the violation must be substantial and plain.
How often courts cite the cases defining “one-subject rule”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “one-subject rule” — 105 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1929–1929
- ORIGINAL
The purpose of the constitutional provision is 'to prevent the inclusion of incongruous and unrelated matters in the same measure and to guard against inadvertence, stealth, and fraud in legislation.