Consolidators' Note never be abrogated; and the amount recoverable shall not be subject to any statutory limitation. 18.] [N. Y. Const., 1894, Art. 1, Qualification of Voters. Every male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a citizen for ninety days, and an inhabitant of this state one year next preceding an election, and for the last four months a resident of the county, and for the last thirty days a resident of the election district in which he may offer his vote, shall be entitled to vote at such election in the election district of which he shall at the time be a resident, and not elsewhere, for all officers that now are or hereafter may be elective by the people, and upon all questions which may be submitted to the vote of the people, provided that in time of war no elector in the actual military service of the state, or of the United States, in the army or navy thereof, shall be deprived of his vote by reason of his absence from such election district; and the legislature shall have power to provide the manner in which, and the time and place at which, such absent electors may vote, and for the return and canvass of their votes in the election districts in which they respectively reside. [N. Y. Const., 1894, Art. 2, & 1.] Members Not to be Questioned for Speeches. For any speech or debate in either house of the legislature the members shall not be questioned in any other place. [N. Y. Const., 1894, Art. 3, § 12.] Civil Service Appointments and Promotions. Appointments and promotions in the civil service of the state, and of all the civil divisions thereof, including cities and villages, shall be made according to merit and fitness, to be ascertained, so far as practicable, by examinations, which, so far as practicable, shall be competitive; provided, however, that honorably discharged soldiers and sailors from the army and navy of the United States in the late Civil War, who are citizens and residents of this state, shall be entitled to preference in appointment and promotion without regard to their standing on any list from which such appointment or promotion may be made. Laws shall be made to provide for the enforcement of this section. [N. Y. Const., 1894, Art. 5, 89.] Common Schools. The legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free common schools, wherein Consolidators' Note all of the children of this state may be educated. [N. Y. Const., 1894, Art. 9, § 1.] NAME There has been much difficulty in selecting the proper term to be applied to the group of statutes assembled in this law. The term "Bill of Rights Law" has been suggested, but this term has come to have a somewhat restricted meaning and like the terms "Petition of Rights" and "Declaration of Rights" has an historical and political association that will hardly justify grouping under it some of the general legal rights which are here brought together. The term "Personal Rights Law" has also met with favor, but as the term "Bill of Rights Law" is too narrow, so the term "Personal Rights Law" is rather too broad and besides it is not at all suggestive of the material found in this law. In selecting a title for a Consolidated Law the following points should be observed: 1. The title should be short for easy reference. 2. It should be broad enough to cover the material assigned to it and any additional matter that may be inserted appropriately. 3. It should be suggestive of the character of the law and the material in it. 4. It should be some catch words if possible by which the statutes grouped under it are generally known. 5. It should be singular rather than plural except where catch words are selected which are referred to usually in the plural. After some examination of the use by legal authorities of the term "Civil Rights" it has been decided finally to adopt the expression "Civil Rights Law" as applicable to the statutes here brought together. This term is general enough to embrace all the matter assigned to the law and such as may be assigned appropriately hereafter and it suggests the character of the law and its contents. Bouvier says that "Civil Rights are those which have no relation to the establishment, support or management of the government. These consist in the power of acquiring and enjoying property or exercising paternal and marital powers and the like. * * * These latter rights of mankind may be reduced to three principal or primary articles; the right of personal security, which consists in a person's legal and uninterrupted enjoyment of his Consolidators' Note life, his limbs, his body, his health, and his reputation; the right of personal liberty, which consists in the power of locomotion, of changing situation or removing one's person to whatsoever place one's inclination may direct, without any restraint unless by due couse of law; the right of property, which consists in the free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his acquisitions, without any control or diminution save only by the laws of the land. The relative rights are public or private; the first are those which subsist between the people and the government; as, the right of protection on the part of the people, and the right of allegiance which is due by the people to the government; the second are the reciprocal rights of husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, master and servant." (Bouvier's Law Dict., Right, p. 929.) In the "American and English Encyclopædia of Law," in an article on Civil Rights," by Archibald R. Watson, the term is defined as follows: "Civil rights may be broadly defined as those rights which appertain to the person by virtue of his citizenship in a state or community." In an article in the "Cyclopedia of Law and Procedure" on "Civil Rights," by James Beck Clark, the term is defined as follows: "Civil rights are those which appertain to citizenship, and which may be enforced or redressed by a civil action. They have no relation to the establishment, support, or management of government. Also a term applied to certain rights secured to all citizens of the United States by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the federal constitution and by congressional action thereunder, and by state legislation." (7 Cyc. 160.) (7 Cyc. 160.) In this article, under the topic "Civil Rights," the following rights are discussed: As to property rights, employment, public schools, public conveyances, accommodations in inns, restaurants and barber shops, places of amusement, jury service, punishment for crime. The term "Civil Rights" is very generally employed as one of the topics in digests. It forms the subject of articles in the encyclopedias and appears in Brightly's, Abbott's, General and other state and federal digests. The Encyclopædia of Pleading and Practice has an article by Malcolm Taylor on the "Civil Rights Act," and the Century Dictionary refers to the "Civil Rights Act," "Civil Rights Bill," "Civil Rights Cases." Many of the acts enunciating rights similar to those incorporated in this Consolidators' Note law use the term "Civil Rights." The New York Statute of 1873 (Ch. 186) is an act to provide for the protection of citizens in their "Civil and Public Rights." The New York Statute of 1895 (Ch. 1042) is entitled "An act to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights." The United States Statute of 1875 (Ch. 114) is an act to protect all citizens in their "civil and legal rights." These illustrations are sufficient to show how commonly the term "Civil Rights" is used to cover the principles of law embraced within the proposed law. The following is an analysis of the topic "Civil Rights" as it appears under the headings and subheadings in the "Index to the Statutes " prepared by the law library under the act of Congress of June 30, 1906, and recently submitted to the public for criticism: "Contracts. See Contracts. "Discrimination between Persons Prohibited. "Personal Property. See also Personal Property. "Places of Public Amusement. "Protection. "Public Conveyances. See Carriers. "Real Property. See also Real Property. 2 |