FrankGoortani/open-us-law huggingface dataset:
La. Const. art. III, § 14 — Article III / Section 14
LA Const., Article III, Section 14
Status: in_force

The style of a law enacted by the legislature shall be, "Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana." It shall be unnecessary to repeat the enacting clause after the first section of an act. §15. Passage of Bills [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 25 — Article I / Section 25
LA Const., Article I, Section 25
Status: in_force

Any person who is a victim of crime shall be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect, and shall be informed of the rights accorded under this Section. As defined by law, a victim of crime shall have the right to reasonable notice and to be present and heard during all critical stages of preconviction and postconviction proceedings; the right to be informed upon the release from custody or the escape of the accused or the offender; the right to confer with the prosecution prior to final disposition of the case; the right to refuse to be interviewed by the accused or a representative of the accused; the right to review and comment upon the presentence report prior to imposition of sentence; the right to seek restitution; and the right to a reasonably prompt conclusion of the case. The legislature shall enact laws to implement this Section. The evidentiary and procedural laws of this state shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with this Section. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to inure to the benefit of an accused or to confer upon any person the right to appeal or seek supervisory review of any judicial decision made in a criminal proceeding. Nothing in this Section shall be the basis for an award of costs or attorney fees, for the appointment of counsel for a victim, or for any cause of action for compensation or damages against the state of Louisiana, a political subdivision, a public agency, or a court, or any officer, employee, or agent thereof. Remedies to enforce the rights enumerated in this Section shall be provided by law. Acts 1997, No. 1487, §1, approved Oct. 3, 1998, eff. Nov. 5, 1998. §26. State Sovereignty [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 3 — Article I / Section 3
LA Const., Article I, Section 3
Status: in_force

No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws. No law shall discriminate against a person because of race or religious ideas, beliefs, or affiliations. No law shall arbitrarily, capriciously, or unreasonably discriminate against a person because of birth, age, sex, culture, physical condition, or political ideas or affiliations. Slavery and involuntary servitude are prohibited, except in the latter case as punishment for crime. §4. Right to Property [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 6 — Article I / Section 6
LA Const., Article I, Section 6
Status: in_force

No person shall be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner or lawful occupant. §7. Freedom of Expression [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 21 — Article I / Section 21
LA Const., Article I, Section 21
Status: in_force

The writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended. §22. Access to Courts [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 27 — Article I / Section 27
LA Const., Article I, Section 27
Status: in_force

The freedom to hunt, fish, and trap wildlife, including all aquatic life, traditionally taken by hunters, trappers and anglers, is a valued natural heritage that shall be forever preserved for the people. Hunting, fishing and trapping shall be managed by law and regulation consistent with Article IX, Section I of the Constitution of Louisiana to protect, conserve and replenish the natural resources of the state. The provisions of this Section shall not alter the burden of proof requirements otherwise established by law for any challenge to a law or regulation pertaining to hunting, fishing or trapping the wildlife of the state, including all aquatic life. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to authorize the use of private property to hunt, fish, or trap without the consent of the owner of the property. Added by Acts 2004, No. 927, §1, approved Nov. 2, 2004, eff. Dec. 7, 2004.
La. Const. art. XII, § 0 — Article XII / Section 0
LA Const., Article XII
Status: in_force

PREAMBLE [ edit ] We, the people of Louisiana, grateful to Almighty God for the civil, political, economic, and religious liberties we enjoy, and desiring to protect individual rights to life, liberty, and property; afford opportunity for the fullest development of the individual; assure equality of rights; promote the health, safety, education, and welfare of the people; maintain a representative and orderly government; ensure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense; and secure the blessings of freedom and justice to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution.
La. Const. art. III, § 5 — Article III / Section 5
LA Const., Article III, Section 5
Status: in_force

(A) Full Term. Members of the legislature shall take office on the same day as the governor and other officials elected statewide. (B) Filling Vacancy. A person elected to fill the remainder of an unexpired legislative term shall take office within thirty days after the secretary of state promulgates the election returns. §6. Legislative Reapportionment; Reapportionment by Supreme Court; Procedure [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 11 — Article III / Section 11
LA Const., Article III, Section 11
Status: in_force

There shall be a legislative auditor responsible solely to the legislature. He shall serve as a fiscal advisor to it and shall perform the duties and functions provided by law related to auditing fiscal records of the state, its agencies, and political subdivisions. He shall be elected by the concurrence of a majority of the elected members of each house and may be removed by the concurrence of two-thirds of the elected members of each house. §12. Prohibited Local and Special Laws [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 7 — Article III / Section 7
LA Const., Article III, Section 7
Status: in_force

(A) Judging Qualifications and Elections; Procedural Rules; Discipline; Expulsion. Each house shall be the judge of the qualifications and elections of its members; shall determine its rules of procedure, not inconsistent with the provisions of this constitution; may punish its members for disorderly conduct or contempt; and may expel a member with concurrence of two-thirds of its elected members. Expulsion creates a vacancy in the office. (B) Subpoena Power; Contempt. Each house may compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of books and papers before it, before any committee thereof, or before joint committees of the houses and may punish those in willful disobedience of its orders for contempt. (C) Officers. Each house shall choose its officers, including a permanent presiding officer selected from its membership. The presiding officers shall be the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives. The clerical officers shall be the clerk of the House of Representatives and the secretary of the Senate, each of whom may administer oaths. §8. Privileges and Immunities [ edit ]
La. Const. art. II, § 2 — Article II / Section 2
LA Const., Article II, Section 2
Status: in_force

Except as otherwise provided by this constitution, no one of these branches, nor any person holding office in one of them, shall exercise power belonging to either of the others.
La. Const. art. III, § 3 — Article III / Section 3
LA Const., Article III, Section 3
Status: in_force

The number of members of the legislature shall be provided by law, but the number of senators shall not exceed thirty-nine and the number of representatives, one hundred five. §4. Qualifications; Residence Requirements; Term; Election Limitations; Vacancies [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 10 — Article I / Section 10
LA Const., Article I, Section 10
Status: in_force

(A) Right to Vote. Every citizen of the state, upon reaching eighteen years of age, shall have the right to register and vote, except that this right may be suspended while a person is interdicted and judicially declared mentally incompetent or is under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony. (B) Disqualification. The following persons shall not be permitted to qualify as a candidate for elective public office or take public elective office or appointment of honor, trust, or profit in this state: (1) A person who has been convicted within this state of a felony and who has exhausted all legal remedies, or who has been convicted under the laws of any other state or of the United States or of any foreign government or country of a crime which, if committed in this state, would be a felony and who has exhausted all legal remedies and has not afterwards been pardoned either by the governor of this state or by the officer of the state, nation, government or country having such authority to pardon in the place where the person was convicted and sentenced. (2) A person actually under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony. (C) Exception. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph (B) of this Section, a person who desires to qualify as a candidate for or hold an elective office, who has been convicted of a felony and who has served his sentence, but has not been pardoned for such felony, shall be permitted to qualify as a candidate for or hold such office if the date of his qualifying for such office is more than fifteen years after the date of the completion of his original sentence. Acts 1997, No. 1492, §1, approved Oct. 3, 1998, eff. Nov. 5, 1998. §11. Right to Keep and Bear Arms [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 22 — Article I / Section 22
LA Const., Article I, Section 22
Status: in_force

All courts shall be open, and every person shall have an adequate remedy by due process of law and justice, administered without denial, partiality, or unreasonable delay, for injury to him in his person, property, reputation, or other rights. §23. Prohibited Laws [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 15 — Article III / Section 15
LA Const., Article III, Section 15
Status: in_force

(A) Introduction; Title; Single Object; Public Meetings. The legislature shall enact no law except by a bill introduced during that session, and propose no constitutional amendment except by a joint resolution introduced during that session, which shall be processed as a bill. Every bill, except the general appropriation bill and bills for the enactment, rearrangement, codification, or revision of a system of laws, shall be confined to one object. Every bill shall contain a brief title indicative of its object. Action on any matter intended to have the effect of law shall be taken only in open, public meeting.: (B) No General Reference. A bill enacting, amending, or reviving a law shall set forth completely the provisions of the law enacted, amended, or revived. No system or code of laws shall be adopted by general reference to it. (C) Germane Amendments. No bill shall be amended in either house to make a change not germane to the bill as introduced. (D) Three Readings. Each bill shall be read at least by title on three separate days in each house. No bill shall be considered for final passage unless a committee has held a public hearing and reported on the bill. (E) Rejected bills; Reconsideration. No bill rejected by either house may again be introduced or considered during the same session by the house which rejected it without the consent of a majority of the members elected to that house. (F) Concurrence in Amendments. No amendment to a bill by one house shall be concurred in by the other, and no conference committee report shall be concurred in by either house except by the same vote required for final passage of the bill. The vote thereon shall be by record vote. (G) Majority Vote; Record Vote. No bill shall become law without the favorable vote of at least a majority of the members elected to each house. Final passage of a bill shall be by record vote. In either house, a record vote shall be taken on any matter upon the request of one-fifth of the elected members. §16. Appropriations [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 15 — Article I / Section 15
LA Const., Article I, Section 15
Status: in_force

Prosecution of a felony shall be initiated by indictment or information, but no person shall be held to answer for a capital crime or a crime punishable by life imprisonment except on indictment by a grand jury. No person shall be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense, except on his application for a new trial, when a mistrial is declared, or when a motion in arrest of judgment is sustained. §16. Right to a Fair Trial [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 16 — Article I / Section 16
LA Const., Article I, Section 16
Status: in_force

Every person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to a speedy, public, and impartial trial in the parish where the offense or an element of the offense occurred, unless venue is changed in accordance with law. No person shall be compelled to give evidence against himself. An accused is entitled to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him, to compel the attendance of witnesses, to present a defense, and to testify in his own behalf. However, nothing in this Section or any other section of this constitution shall prohibit the legislature from enacting a law to require a trial court to instruct a jury in a criminal trial that the governor is empowered to grant a reprieve, pardon, or commutation of sentence following conviction of a crime, that the governor in exercising such authority may commute or modify a sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of parole to a lesser sentence which includes the possibility of parole, may commute a sentence of death to a lesser sentence of life imprisonment without benefit of parole, or may allow the release of an offender either by reducing a life imprisonment or death sentence to the time already served by the offender or by granting the offender a pardon. Acts 1995, No. 1322, §1, approved Nov. 18, 1995, eff. Dec. 23, 1995. §17. Jury Trial in Criminal Cases; Joinder of Felonies; Mode of Trial [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 18 — Article III / Section 18
LA Const., Article III, Section 18
Status: in_force

(A) Gubernatorial Action. If the governor does not approve a bill, he may veto it. A bill, except a joint resolution, shall become law if the governor signs it or if he fails to sign or veto it within ten days after delivery to him if the legislature is in session on the tenth day after such delivery, or within twenty days after delivery if the tenth day after delivery occurs after the legislature is adjourned. (B) Veto Message. If the governor vetoes a bill, he shall return it to the legislature, with his veto message within twelve days after delivery to him if the legislature is in session. If the governor returns a vetoed bill after the legislature adjourns, he shall return it, with his veto message, as provided by law. (C) Veto Session. (1) A bill vetoed and returned and subsequently approved by two-thirds of the elected members of each house shall become law. The legislature shall meet in veto session in the state capital at noon on the fortieth day following final adjournment of the most recent session, to consider all bills vetoed by the governor. If the fortieth day falls on Sunday, the session shall convene at noon on the succeeding Monday. No veto session shall exceed five calendar days, and any veto session may be finally adjourned prior to the end of the fifth day upon a vote of two-thirds of the elected members of each house. (2) No veto session shall be held if a majority of the elected members of either house declare in writing that a veto session is unnecessary. The declaration must be received by the presiding officer of the respective houses at least five days prior to the day on which the veto session is to convene. Acts 1989, No. 841, §1, approved Oct. 7, 1989, eff. Nov. 7, 1989. §19. Effective Date of Laws [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 12 — Article III / Section 12
LA Const., Article III, Section 12
Status: in_force

(A) Prohibitions. Except as otherwise provided in this constitution, the legislature shall not pass a local or special law: (1) For the holding and conducting of elections, or fixing or changing the place of voting. (2) Changing the names of persons; authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children or the emancipation of minors; affecting the estates of minors or persons under disabilities; granting divorces; changing the law of descent or succession; giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds or to any illegal disposition of property. (3) Concerning any civil or criminal actions, including changing the venue in civil or criminal cases, or regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts, or providing or changing methods for the collection of debts or the enforcement of judgments, or prescribing the effects of judicial sales. (4) Authorizing the laying out, opening, closing, altering, or maintaining of roads, highways, streets, or alleys; relating to ferries and bridges, or incorporating bridge or ferry companies, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form boundaries between this and any other state; authorizing the constructing of street passenger railroads in any incorporated town or city. (5) Exempting property from taxation; extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes; relieving an assessor or collector of taxes from the performance of his official duties or of his sureties from liability; remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures; refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury. (6) Regulating labor, trade, manufacturing, or agriculture; fixing the rate of interest. (7) Creating private corporations, or amending, renewing, extending, or explaining the charters thereof; granting to any private corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive right, privilege, or immunity. (8) Regulating the management of parish or city public schools, the building or repairing of parish or city schoolhouses, and the raising of money for such purposes. (9) Legalizing the unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer, employee, or agent of the state, its agencies, or political subdivisions. (10) Defining any crime. (B) Additional Prohibition. The legislature shall not indirectly enact special or local laws by the partial repeal or suspension of a general law. §13. Local or Special Laws; Notice of Intent; Publication [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 26 — Article I / Section 26
LA Const., Article I, Section 26
Status: in_force

The people of this state have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free and sovereign state; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled. Acts 1997, No. 1494, §1, approved Oct. 3, 1998, eff. Nov. 5, 1998. §27. Freedom to Hunt, Fish and Trap [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 24 — Article I / Section 24
LA Const., Article I, Section 24
Status: in_force

The enumeration in this constitution of certain rights shall not deny or disparage other rights retained by the individual citizens of the state. §25. Rights of a Victim [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 19 — Article I / Section 19
LA Const., Article I, Section 19
Status: in_force

No person shall be subjected to imprisonment or forfeiture of rights or property without the right of judicial review based upon a complete record of all evidence upon which the judgment is based. This right may be intelligently waived. The cost of transcribing the record shall be paid as provided by law. §20. Right to Humane Treatment [ edit ]
La. Const. art. II, § 1 — Article II / Section 1
LA Const., Article II, Section 1
Status: in_force

The powers of government of the state are divided into three separate branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. §2. Limitations on Each Branch [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 17 — Article III / Section 17
LA Const., Article III, Section 17
Status: in_force

(A) Signing; Delivery. A bill passed by both houses shall be signed by the presiding officers and delivered to the governor within three days after passage. (B) Resolutions. No joint, concurrent, or other resolution shall require the signature or other action of the governor to become effective. §18. Gubernatorial Action on Bills; Sign, Failure to Sign, Veto; Veto Session [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 6 — Article III / Section 6
LA Const., Article III, Section 6
Status: in_force

(A) Reapportionment by Legislature. By the end of the year following the year in which the population of this state is reported to the president of the United States for each decennial federal census, the legislature shall reapportion the representation in each house as equally as practicable on the basis of population shown by the census. (B) Reapportionment by Supreme Court. If the legislature fails to reapportion as required in Paragraph (A), the supreme court, upon petition of any elector, shall reapportion the representation in each house as provided in Paragraph (A). (C) Procedure. The procedure for review and for petition shall be provided by law. §7. Judging Qualifications and Elections; Procedural Rules; Discipline; Expulsion; Subpoenas; Contempt; Officers [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 23 — Article I / Section 23
LA Const., Article I, Section 23
Status: in_force

No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be enacted. §24. Unenumerated Rights [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 2 — Article I / Section 2
LA Const., Article I, Section 2
Status: in_force

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law. §3. Right to Individual Dignity [ edit ]
La. Const. art. III, § 13 — Article III / Section 13
LA Const., Article III, Section 13
Status: in_force

No local or special law shall be enacted unless notice of the intent to introduce a bill to enact such a law has been published on two separate days, without cost to the state, in the official journal of the locality where the matter to be affected is situated. The last day of publication shall be at least thirty days prior to introduction of the bill. The notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law, and every such bill shall recite that notice has been given. §14. Style of Laws; Enacting Clause [ edit ]
La. Const. art. I, § 12 — Article I / Section 12
LA Const., Article I, Section 12
Status: in_force

In access to public areas, accommodations, and facilities, every person shall be free from discrimination based on race, religion, or national ancestry and from arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable discrimination based on age, sex, or physical condition. §13. Rights of the Accused [ edit ]