Legislative Process to Pass ACR125 & SCR135

To put a constitutional amendment before NJ voters, both chambers of the NJ legislature, the Assembly and the Senate, must pass their respective version of ACR125/SCR135 by a simple majority vote in two successive sessions of the state legislature*.

We are currently in the legislative session that began in January 2022 and will end in December 2023.  The next legislative session (2024-25) will begin in January 2024 and run to December 2025.

Thus, a goal of our initiative is to get ACR125/SCR135 passed no later than December 2023, and then get it once again passed in the new legislative session that will begin in January 2024—but passed no later than August 2024. That is because the content of the question to be put before the voters must, by law, be publicized in NJ newspapers at least three months before the November 2024 election—which is to say, by the beginning of August.

(*Note: It is possible for a constitutional amendment to go before the NJ voters if it passes both chambers of the legislature by a 2/3 majority in a single session—thus, in either this 2022-23 session, or the next 2023-24 session. But unless these continuing resolutions get significant bipartisan support—which currently seems unlikely–this will not happen.)