Alabama Constitution

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Alabama Constitution is the basic governing document of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was adopted in 1901 and is the sixth constitution that the state has had. At over 360,000 words, the document is 12 times longer than the average state constitution, 40 times longer than the U.S. Constitution, and is the longest still-operative constitution anywhere in the world (The Constitution of India, the longest national constitution, comes in at approximately 117,000 words).

About 90 percent of the document's length comes from its 772 (as of 2005) amendments. About 70 percent of those amendments cover only a single county or city, and some deal with salaries of specific officials (e.g. Amendment 480 and the Greene County probate judge). This gives Alabama a large number of constitutional officers.

The Preamble runs:

We the people of the State of Alabama, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.

Contents

The inordinate length is both because of and the cause of heavy centralization of government power in the state capital, Montgomery, leaving very little authority to local units. Counties cannot even legislate on local issues, requiring the state legislature, and ipso facto uninvolved parts of the state, to pass local laws. The same holds true for taxation.

The constitution addresses many issues that are dealt with by statute in most other states. The most notable issue is taxation. Unlike most other states, a large portion of Alabama's tax code is written into the constitution, necessitating its amendment over minor taxation issues. This, along with the requirement that an amendment must be unanimously approved in by the legislature or face a statewide vote, has resulted in local county or municipality related amendments being overwhelmingly approved, but ultimately rejected statewide. [1]


The document has been amended for such diverse topics such as:

The Legislature has also been forced to amend amendments that often concerned similarly trivial matters (See other sections for more examples):

  • Section 97 prohibits deceased officials from receiving a salary.

The paper has also been falsely amended at least once ("Amendment" 587). This may be the reason why it has no Amendment 621, skipping from 620 to 622, however Amendment 693 is also missing. There is also a strange "additional" amendment, Amendment "26A". The reason for this unusual nomenclature is unknown.

The document has been heavily criticized for discriminatory elements, many of which have been made moot by amendments to the state or federal constitutions or United States Supreme Court decisions.

It contains many racist elements. One provision completely disenfranchised Black American voters, but it has been rendered inoperative. The President of the Constitutional Convention stated in his inaugural address that their intention was "within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State."(Day 2 of 54)

Originally it outlawed interracial marriage (Section 102), however this provision was removed in 2000 by Amendment 667. The constitution still requires racially segregated education in the state (Section 256). Although this provision has not been enforced since the 1960s, the continued existence of these provisions is seen by some in Alabama as an embarrassment to the state. A proposal to strike the segregation requirement was defeated narrowly in 2004 (MSNBC).

Section 177 denied women the right to vote by confining voting rights to "male citizens," but this was rendered unenforceable by the 19th Amendment until Amendment 579 was substituted, which contained no reference to gender.

The constitution includes many provisions that are either wholly or partly archaic in their wording or functions, or are not inappropriate for inclusion in a constitution; many of these have also been rendered unenforceable by federal laws and court rulings. For instance:

  • Section 86 mandates that "The legislature shall pass such penal laws as it may deem expedient to suppress the evil practice of dueling" (Other State constitutions have anti-dueling provisions, see the article on duelling).
  • Section 90 gives instructions on the proper method of annexing foreign territory.
  • Section 191 deals with "the evils arising from the use of intoxicating liquors at all elections."
  • The rather wordy Section 244 deals with granting of free railroad tickets to elected officials.
  • Section 245 prohibits railroads from misleading customers as to their rates.

Efforts to remove or amend these have so far proved unsuccessful.

Amendment 557 is Alabama's version of the Victims' Rights Amendment

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
v • d • e
States Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming
Territories American Samoa • Guam • Northern Mariana Islands • Puerto Rico • United States Virgin Islands

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/l/a/Alabama_Constitution_5f25.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.