Source: http://www.ago.ne.gov/ag_opinion_view?oid=4131
Timestamp: 2013-05-21 14:25:17
Document Index: 577785085

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 29', '§ 29', '§ 29', '§ 29', '§ 29', '§ 29']

AGO Opinion 08008
Back to Opinion Listing Whether certain proposed legislation is within the scope of the Governor’s call for a special session of the Legislature relating to child abandonment
SUBJECT:	Whether certain proposed legislation is within the scope of the Governor’s call for a special session of the Legislature relating to child abandonment
REQUESTED BY:	Nebraska State Senator Rich Pahls
In a letter dated November 5, 2008, you have asked this office for its opinion as to whether a proposed legislative bill you intend to offer at the Legislature’s special session beginning on November 14, 2008, is “constitutional under the restrictions of the Governor’s Proclamation” calling the Legislature into session. The proclamation you refer to was issued by Governor Dave Heineman on October 29, 2008. It calls the Legislature into special session “for the purpose of considering and enacting legislation on only” two subjects. These subjects are: 1.	Enacting legislation to limit the application of 2008 Neb. Laws LB 157, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-121, by reducing the maximum age of children to whom the statute applies; and
Your proposed bill contains twelve sections. The proposed bill places a thirty day limit on the age of a child who can be left at a licensed hospital without threat of criminal prosecution, but it also contains numerous other provisions dealing generally with the rights, responsibilities and duties of the parent, the hospital and the Department of Health and Human Services in legal child abandonment situations. Section 11 of your proposed bill would repeal § 29-121 outright. If enacted, the bill would be known as the Nebraska Safe Haven Act.
The issue for decision is whether enactment of your proposed bill establishing the Nebraska Safe Haven Act would fall outside the scope of the Governor’s call of the Legislature into special session which appears to limit the session to the consideration and enactment of legislation to amend § 29-121 to place an age limit on children to whom that statute applies.
It is important to note in this regard that, while the supreme court has stated that during a special session the Legislature may enact legislation “relating to, germane to, and having a natural connection with the purpose for which it was convened,” Arrow Club, 177 Neb. at 690, 131 N.W.2d at 137, the court, in fact, has “adopted a narrow view of germaneness, limiting it to ‘a specified phase of a general subject.’” Op. Att’y Gen. No. 01034 (Oct. 31, 2001) (quoting Arrow Club, 177 Neb. at 689, 131 N.W.2d at 137). As stated in Opinion No. 01034: “In light of the Arrow Club decision, it appears the Nebraska Supreme Court would take a restrictive view of what legislation is considered germane to a Governor’s special session call.”
Section 4 of your proposed bill would limit the age of a child who may be relinquished without threat of prosecution to thirty days; and such proposed limitation falls readily within the scope of the Governor’s call. Bearing in mind, however, the very limited nature of the call, it appears that all the remaining provisions of the proposed bill exceed it. Generally speaking, the proposed bill contains a definition and terminology not found in § 29-121, sets out some of the civil legal ramifications of leaving a child at a hospital, and places a number of duties and responsibilities in connection with abandonment of children at hospitals on the hospitals and the Department of Health and Human Services. None of these proposals is encompassed within the Governor’s call, which is limited to consideration of a limitation on the exemption from criminal prosecution set forth in § 29-121. For example, sections 7, 8 and 9 of the proposed bill would require the department to “develop and implement a public information program to inform the general public of the procedures of and alternatives to the Nebraska Safe Haven Act,” to develop several other methods and programs relating generally to the proposed act and to prepare and submit an annual report to the Legislature including specified data about the implementation and operation of the proposed act. Similarly, sections 3, 5 and 6 and the last sentence of section 4 of the proposed bill place duties and responsibilities on hospital personnel and the department to be carried out when a child is relinquished to a hospital under the act. It is apparent these provisions, while related to the general subject of legal child abandonments, do not deal with and are not germane to the phase of that subject specified in the Governor’s call – i.e., limiting the exemption from criminal prosecution found in § 29-121 by considering a reduction in the maximum age of children covered by that statute.
For the reasons set forth above, it is our opinion that, with the exception of the setting of a maximum age of thirty days for a child who could be relinquished to a licensed hospital without criminal prosecution for that act alone, your proposed bill, if enacted and then challenged in court, would likely be deemed to be outside the scope of the Governor’s call for the special session.
17-034-20