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Constitutions and Elections <>*«. /Section II GONSTITUTIONS AND ELECTIONS 1. Constitutions 2. • Elections X-^r \: • 1 '^ .. ••••;•:••: • : • ^ .:- •, : ••fiX v V ., M ') ,! o , \ ^. \,U.--.l.: ' «>v A> / .r. \> •V ^-^ • .» \' 1 Constitutions STATE GONSTITUTI0NS AND CONSTITUTIONAL REVISION-JUlV, 1953 TO JULY, 1955* ONSTITUTIONAL developments in the the inclusion of increasing amounts of bienniiini 1953-1955 are not simple statutory matter. In. 1954 Professor Al- G to evaluate. Since no [general re­ fre'd De Grazia constructed a chart which visions occurred, one might cdriclude that confirmed graphically that over the years no real progress was made, auch a con­ constitutions very definitely have grown clusion, however, is not accurate. longer;^ he writes: Although no state held a convention for ... almost from the beginning"the length of general revision, the subject was under constitutions began to increase, at .first slightly consideration in many states/,The normal in the period before 1840, then markedly up to grist of individual amendments to state 1890, and finally the period from 1900 to the. constitutidns were submitted and voted present has given .us some rather fantastic? ex­ upon in various states, and some of them amples of lengthy constitutions. dealt with basic questions', that are nor­ He points out that, many old constitutions, mally reserved for consideration during a once fairly brief, have since been amended general revision. a number of times and have assumed large Significant also was the fact that.pro­ proportions for that reason. But, .he> posals for general revision came more fre­ continues: 'i quently from Governors, /leading legisla­ Sincje 1910' the several state constitutions that tors and other top level (jjfficials, whereas have been adopted show no clear pattern; If - in the past they came chiefly from civic one takes the last three, for example, one finds and reform organizations and professors them less long than the preceding two. Even of government. Good published materials then, these last three constitutions vary from on problems of constitiitional revision, about sixty pages .to about twenty-fiye pages in meantime, have become spniewtfat more length. sor One would be rash, on the basis of these abundant. figures, to predict that the next generation of state constitution making in the United States- GENERAL DEVELOPMENTS will reveal either an increase from the lengthy Writers on state government have long constitutions of the recent past or a decrease in.; called attention to the contrast between size £is men realize the impossibility of putting the original. state constitutions and the down everything in the basic document of the more modefh ones as regards length. It state. » • . - j has been noted that the original constitu­ For years, also, writers have pointed out I tions wer.e brief and concise, limited to that many provisions in existing cohstitu- ! "^basiCLand essential matters, whereas recent tions are so restrictive that the states are ones tend^<3ocnuch greater length, due to unable to do numerous things their gov- •Prepared by W, BROOKE GRAVES, Chief, Gov­ v^Alfred De Grazia,-"State Constitutions—Are ernment Division, Legislative Reference Service, They Growing honger?" Stale Government, AprU, Library of Gongi'ess. K 1954, pp. 82-83. 67 \ > .:X 68 THE B0OK 0F THE STA TES ernments and the people vyant done. at an election vote in favor of it. Many Emphasis on this fundamental now comes voters ignored such proposals when on the from a ne\v source. The Commission on ballot in general elections. The. 1955 Intergovernmental Relations, vvhich re­ amendment, approved by a majority of ported in 1955, stresses the fact that if state almost five to one at the special election, and local governments are to assume provides that only a majority of those who V greater responsibilities under, the federal vote on the question itself is required for system, they must be capable of perform­ approval of an amendment. ing thfese functions well. The need for Florida^ Extensive activity on the part modernizing constitutions is particularly of the State Bar Association and organized . undeflined. The report says:- citizen groups long has sought to bring a Early in its study, the Commission was con­ constitutional convention and general^ re­ fronted wuh the fact that many state constitu­ vision of the state's constitution. Early in tions restrict the SCOJDC, effectiveness, and adapt­ 1955 the Governor appointed a Citizens ability of state and local action. These self- ^Committee to draft.prqposals for constitu­ imposed constitutional limitations make it dif­ tional-revision and present them to the ficult for many states to perform all of the serv­ legislature. On April 5 he recomrnended ices their citizens require, and consequently have to the legislature establishment of a com­ frequently been the underlying cause of state mission to study revision. A comrnission of and niunicipal pleas for federal assistance. ... thirty-seven members resulted in June. It The Commission finds a veiy real and pressing need for the states to improve their constitutions. is to report to the 1957 session of the legis­ A number of states recently have taken energetic lature, making recommendations for re­ action to rewrite outmoded charters. In these vision, article by article; if approved by a states this action has been regarded as a first three-fifths vote in each house, these rec­ step in the program to achieve the flexibility, ommendations .may. then- be passed upon required, to meet the modern needs of their by the voters at the 1958 general election.^ citizens. Latest development in a state-wide cam­ Increasing emphasis on. constitutional paign of education is the publication of a revision*on the part of Governors and ninety-two page critique of the present legislative bodies has been noted. In each constitution."* round of messages to the legislatures, one ////;zo/j. Illinois facilitated future amend- now finds a number of recommendations merjts of its constitution in 1950 by adopt­ for constitutional revision. Some of them ing the Gateway Amendment to it.^ The are repeated in successive sessions by in­ . Illinois General Assembly in 1953 sub­ dividual Governors, or by a Governor of mitted three constitutional arngndments, one political party driving home a position all three of which were approved by the taken by a predecessor of the other party. voters at the 1954 general election. One Meantime^ support for revision by im­ was relatively minor, authorizing the sale portant citizen gi"oups continues. or lease of certain canals or waterways <•' '. owned by the state upon such terins as the , PROPOSALS AND ACTION ON "+ General-Assembly might prescribe by law. GENERAL REVISION .; The second provides that'after 1958-, thcL,^. " ' • '' Recent examples of proposals for gen­ term of the State Treasurer shall be in­ eral constitutional revisipn, and of result­ creased from two years to four. The third, ing action, include the following among oihers: , 'Manning J. Dauer, "Florida Moves to Change Connecticut.' At a special.election on July Basic Law," Rational Municipal Review, July, 1955, 26, 1955, Connecticut's voters approved pp. 365T366. : . •Manning J. Dauer," and William C. Havard, ^an amendment that will facilitate future "The Florida Constitution of 1885—A Critique" /- amendment of the state's constitution. (Public Administration Clearing Service, Univer­ Heretofore approval of an , amendment sity of Florida, 1955), reprinted from the University required that a majority of those "present" of Florida Law Review, Spring \9S5. ' . , "See The Book of the Stales, 1954-7955, p, 66. Cur­ pf • 'Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, rent data supplied by Professor Neil F. Garvey, A Report to the President for Transmittal to the Con­Divisioii. of University Extension,' Uxliversity of gress, pp. 37-38 (Washington, June, 1955). IllinoisV •-';•- -V, W CONSTITUTIONS AND ELECTIONS 69 and most notable, provided a means of passed for submission at the general elecr breaking the deadlock existing for more tion in 1952 a safeguarding amendment than half a century between Cook County specifically providing for a popular refer­ and "down-state" over the question of endum on any provision approved by a apportionment. The legislature in 1955, convention. This proposal received 656,- in accordance with the- amendment, re­ 000 votes as compared with 424,000 apportioned the state, for the first time against, but it then failed of adoption be­ X since 1901. Provision is made in the cause in Minnesota a constitutional amend­ > amendment for means of effecting ap­ ment requires a majority of all ydtes cast portionments in the future, should the in a general election. The 1953 legislature General Assembly fail to act in 1963 or at acted to resubmit the question for vote in the expiration of any ten-year interval the general election of 1954. This time, ., thereafter. 638,818 citizens voted for, 266,434 against.'^ The General Assembly in 1955 passed A bill to submit to the electorate a pro­ one amendment to be submitted to the posal for a convention was introduced voters at the g'eneral election in 1956. It early in the 1955 session. Hearings were represents another attempt to amend the held, and in the Senate the bill was re­ revenue article in such a way as to permit ported favorably. The Governor described --- the legislature to classify property for pur­ it as "a measure of extreme importance to poses of taxation, subject to certain enum­ the cause of good
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