On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, Amendment One \u2013 a referendum to amend Georgia\u2019s Constitution with respect to the Georgia legislature\u2019s authority to legislate concerning restrictive covenants \u2013 passed overwhelmingly.\u00a0 Does the referendum\u2019s passage mean that Georgia\u2019s restrictive covenants law has now changed?\u00a0 Unfortunately, the timing of when Georgia law officially changes is not entirely clear.<\/p>\n
Under Art. X, \u00a7 1, \u00b6 6 of the Georgia Constitution, an amendment to Georgia\u2019s Constitution becomes effective on the January 1 following its ratification, unless the amendment or the resolution proposing the amendment provides otherwise.\u00a0 Neither the amendment nor House Resolution 178, which provided for the referendum, states that the amendment would go into effect immediately.\u00a0 Therefore, the amendment to the Constitution goes into effect on January 1, 2011.<\/p>\n
House Bill 173 (\u201cHB 173\u201d) is the legislation which will actually change restrictive covenants law in Georgia.\u00a0 HB 173 was passed in 2009, but its effective date was contingent on the passage of an amendment to Georgia\u2019s Constitution.\u00a0 HB 173 provided that if an amendment was not ratified, it would stand automatically repealed.\u00a0 If an amendment was ratified, it would become effective on the day following ratification.<\/p>\n
Hence the confusion concerning the timing of when the law goes into effect: HB 173, by its own terms, went into effect on November 3.\u00a0 However, under Art. X, \u00a7 1, \u00b6 6, the Georgia Constitution will technically not be amended until January 1.<\/p>\n
This \u201cgap\u201d was apparently unintended, but raises several interesting issues concerning the new law.\u00a0 Because the amendment has not gone into effect, HB 173 is arguably currently unconstitutional based on Georgia\u2019s Constitution as it reads today.\u00a0 However, on January 1, it would seem that any constitutional defects will be \u201ccured\u201d by virtue of the amendment taking effect.<\/p>\n
Of course, HB 173 only applies to contracts entered into after its effective date.\u00a0 Thus, a court would only be forced to address the above issues in a case where the court was asked to make a ruling before January 1, 2011 on a contract entered into after November 3, 2010.\u00a0 The likelihood of such an occurrence may be slim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, November 2, 2010, Amendment One \u2013 a referendum to amend Georgia\u2019s Constitution with respect to the Georgia legislature\u2019s authority to legislate concerning restrictive covenants \u2013 passed overwhelmingly.\u00a0 Does the referendum\u2019s passage mean that Georgia\u2019s restrictive covenants law has now changed?\u00a0 Unfortunately, the timing of when Georgia law officially changes is not entirely clear. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[20,25,22],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n