Why We Would Not Worry About CA Legislative Override

Thursday, September 30, 2010, 12:41 pm Pacific Time

UPDATED FLASH--AB 2072 Vetoed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

According to an authoritative source within the California Senate staff, it is still technically possible that the California Legislature could override Gov. Schwarzenegger's veto of AB 2072. However, this is highly *unlikely* to happen, since there has not been a successful attempt to override a governor's veto in California since 1979.

Theoretically, the Legislature has 60 days to override the current governor's veto of AB 2072, which means that the last possible day it could be overridden is Sunday, November 28, 2010.

Two days later on November 30, 2010, the Legislature will adjourn "sine die", which means that the session will be completely finished, and no bills at all from that session could be overridden after that. Legislators would only have the option of reintroducing a bill in January 2011, at which time it would be considered a new bill and be given a different number.

The last bill to be overridden in California was AB 570, titled: "An act to amend Section 1643 of the Insurance Code, relating to insurance". That bill was originally introduced by Assemblymember Pappen on Feb. 16, 1979 and was passed out of the Legislature on May 25, 1979, then vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown on June 9, 1979, the same Jerry Brown who is currently running again for governor of California, 27 years after he left the office in 1983.

The Legislature successfully overrode the governor's veto on July 12, 1979.Previous to AB 580 in 1979, there was another bill successfully overridden in 1979 which was SB 91, originally introduced by Senator Al Alquist (the husband of current Senator Elaine Alquist).Previous to that, SB 155 was successfully overridden in 1977.

Composed by Brian Riley, GallyProtest.org and "Save Our Deaf Schools" listserv editor.