72 CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND [Art. 3]

than the Governor has possession of a bill after it is signed by him until it is sent to the
clerk of the court of appeals. Allegany County v. Warfield, 100 Md. 518; Nowell v.
Harrington, 122 Md. 491.

Generally.

Courts are not precluded by an authentication of a statute in the manner prescribed
by this section from passing upon the question of whether the bill was constitutionally
passed; but an authenticated statute cannot be impeached by the legislative journals
alone or by mere parol evidence. Cases reviewed and distinguished. Evidence held
insufficient to overcome the due authentication of an act. The bill need be engrossed
only in the house in which it originated. Ridgely v. Baltimore, 119 Md. 583; Berry v.
Baltimore, etc., R. R. Co., 41 Md. 461; Legg v. Annapolis, 42 Md. 220; Jessup v.
Baltimore, 121 Md. 562.

In proving the contents of an act of assembly, the court cannot permit extrinsic
evidence so as to go behind the evidence provided for by this section; hence it
may not be proved that the provisions of an act are different from those set out in
the published volume which is an exact transcript of the copy recorded in the court
of appeals, under this section. Object of this section. Annapolis v. Harwood, 32 Md.
477; Jessup v. Baltimore, 121 Md. 562.

This section does not regulate the time when a law shall go into operation—see
sec. 31. If an act expressly provides when it shall take effect, it will be effective
accordingly whether it has been published or not. Parkinson v. State, 14 Md. 199.

The legislature may not make the validity of a public general statute dependent
upon its approval by a majority of the voters of the state under a referendum; hence
the soldiers' bonus act, act 1922, ch. 448, is void. The legislature may not delegate its
law-making power. The general assembly of Maryland has the exclusive power of
making laws, subject to certain veto powers of the Governor. Other constitutional
questions not passed upon. Brawner v. Supervisors, 141 Md. 601.

There are three things required by this section before the duty of the general assembly
ends and that of the Governor begins; the former must pass the bill, seal it with the
great seal and present it to the Governor. Johnson v. Luers, 129 Md. 527.

This section referred to in construing art. 15 of the Declaration of Rights—see notes
thereto. State v. G. & P. R. R. Co., 40 Md. 53 (dissenting opinion).

This section referred to in construing art. 14, sec. 1—see notes thereto. Warfield v.
Vandiver, 101 Md. 114.

Cited but not construed in Dunn v. Brager, 116 Md. 242, 244.

See notes to sec. 28 and to art. 2, sec. 17, Md. Constitution.

Sec. 31. No law passed by the General Assembly shall take effect until
the first day of June next after the session at which it may be passed, unless
it be otherwise expressly declared therein.

The enacting clause as well as the repealing clause of the act of 1854, ch. 153,
rescinding a portion of the act of 1795, ch. 56, held to be controlled by this section.
Risewick v. Davis, 19 Md. 96.

It was competent for the legislature to provide that the act of 1918, ch. 205, ap-
plicable to Annapolis, should go into effect immediately, under this section. See notes
to art. 16, sec. 1, of the Constitution. Strange v. Levy, 134 Md. 648.

This section applied. Baltimore v. German-American Fire Ins. Co., 132 Md. 383.

This section referred to in construing art. 3, sec. 30, and art. 2, sec. 17—see notes
to the former. Lankford v. Somerset County, 73 Md. 122 (concurring opinion).

See notes to sec. 30, and to art. 16, sec. 1, Md. Constitution.

Sec. 32. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the State by any
order or resolution, nor except in accordance with an appropriation by law;
and every such law shall distinctly specify the sum appropriated and the
object to which it shall be applied; provided that nothing herein contained
shall prevent the General Assembly from placing a contingent fund at the
disposal of the Executive, who shall report to the General Assembly at each
session the amount expended and the purposes to which it was applied. An
accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money
shall be attached to and published with the laws after each regular session
of the General Assembly.

Where a law provides that the warrant of the comptroller shall be paid out of any
money thereafter in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and that the whole amount
of said warrant shall not exceed three hundred thousand dollars, the appropriation
is sufficiently made under this section. Object of this section. McPherson v. Leonard,
29 Md. 390 (cf. dissenting opinion).