Official Code of Georgia Annotated/Title 1/Chapter 1/Section 3

Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA)
Georgia General Assembly
General Provisions—General Provisions—Severability.
3177486Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) — General Provisions—General Provisions—Severability.Georgia General Assembly

Except as otherwise specifically provided in this Code or in an Act or resolution of the General Assembly, in the event any title, chapter, article, part, subpart, Code section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, item, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this Code or of any Act or resolution of the General Assembly is declared or adjudged to be invalid or unconstitutional, such declaration or adjudication shall not affect the remaining portions of this Code or of such Act or resolution, which shall remain of full force and effect as if such portion so declared or adjudged invalid or unconstitutional were not originally a part of this Code or of such Act or resolution. The General Assembly declares that it would have enacted the remaining parts of this Code if it had known that such portion hereof would be declared or adjudged invalid or unconstitutional. The General Assembly further declares that it would have enacted the remaining parts of any other Act or resolution if it had known that such portion thereof would be declared or adjudged invalid or unconstitutional unless such Act or resolution contains an express provision to the contrary.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Severability clause creates presumption of separability.—The presence of a severability clause in an Act reverses the usual presumption that the General Assembly intends the Act to be an entirety and creates an opposite presumption of separability. City Council v. Mangelly, 243 Ga. 358, 254 S. E. 2d 315 (1979).

Cited in Georgia Ass’n of Educators v. Harris, 749 F. Supp. 1110 (N. D. Ga. 1990); Jekyll Island—State Park Auth. v. Jekyll Island Citizens Ass’n, 266 Ga. 152, 464 S. E. 2d 808 (1996).