Opinion ID: 2184998
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitution Sections 47 and 51

Text: The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Statutes do not offend Sections 47 and 51 of the Kentucky Constitution. The 2000 Ky. Acts, Ch. 401 and Senate Bill 263 do not render the ultimate statutes unconstitutional. Statutes have a presumption of constitutionality and nothing presented here overcomes such a presumption. Commonwealth v. Halsell, Ky., 934 S.W.2d 552 (1996). Section 47 does require that all bills raising revenue must originate in the House of Representatives and not in the Senate. Senate Bill 263 cannot be construed as a revenue raising bill by any stretch of the imagination. The term revenue has always been interpreted in the narrowest and strictest way. See Yeoman v. Commonwealth, Ky., 983 S.W.2d 459 (1998). The fact that one section of the bill recites the emergency nature of losing federal grant money does not make the bill a revenue measure. Section 51 of the Kentucky Constitution provides that the legislature cannot enact a law that relates to more than one subject. As held in Commonwealth ex rel Armstrong v. Collins, Ky., 709 S.W.2d 437, 443 (1986), the purpose of this section is to prevent surreptitious legislation, and to prevent surprise and fraud upon the members of the General Assembly and other interested parties. However, the title need only furnish general notification of the general subject of the act. If the title furnishes an indication as to contents of the act, it passes constitutional muster. The title in this instance is neither false nor misleading. Senate Bill 263 was originally introduced as an Act Relating to Crimes and Punishment but the House amendments relating to sex offender registration proposed a title change to an Act relating to public safety. This title accurately reflects the contents and purpose of the legislation.