# Emergency Clause Language attached to a bill declaring it immediately necessary, which makes the resulting statute effective on enactment instead of on the ordinary later date. Most state constitutions require a higher vote for the clause than for the bill itself. The clause does a second thing that is rarely its stated purpose. In states where voters can suspend a new law by petition, the popular referendum works on the gap between enactment and effect: signatures filed inside that window hold the statute in abeyance until an election. A law already in force when the window opens cannot be suspended, so an emergency clause removes the voters' veto as a side effect of accelerating the effective date. Some state constitutions anticipate this and exclude particular subjects — appropriations most often — from the clause, or allow a court to review whether an emergency in fact existed. ## See also - [[How a State Legislature Makes Law]] - [[How a Ballot Measure Gets on the Ballot]]