A year ago we updated researchers on new material that was added to State Constitutions Illustrated. In the last 11 months, we’ve added more material! Read below for an update to see what’s new in this database.
Updates from December 2023 to Date
Since December 2023, 67 additional current documents have been added to 34 states. All states are up to date as of the elections of November 5, 2024.
We will continue to post state constitutional content news right here in the HeinOnline Blog. Be sure to subscribe to our blog to receive notifications when new posts are published.
From the November 5, 2024 Elections
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Amendment 1, which allows the Franklin County Board of Education to manage, sell, or lease lands and natural resources within the Franklin County School System located in Walker and Fayette Counties.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the Secretary of State:
- Proposition 139, amending the constitution to provide for the fundamental right to abortion, in addition to other provisions.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature and Attorney General:
- Issue 1, which allows proceeds from the state lottery to fund scholarships and grants for vocational-technical schools and technical institutes.
- Issue 2, repealing the authorization for a casino license in Pope County and requiring countywide voter approval for any new casino licenses.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Proposition 3, repealing Proposition 8 (2008) which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The amendment declares that a “right to marry is a fundamental right” in the California Constitution.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the General Assembly and Secretary of State:
- Amendment 79, creating a right to abortion in the constitution and allowing the use of public funds for an abortion.
- Amendment G, to support expanding the property tax exemption for veterans with a disability to include veterans with individual unemployability status as determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
- Amendment H, to create a new board, named the Independent Judicial Discipline Adjudicative Board, and make rules for the judicial discipline process.
- Amendment I, removing the right to bail in cases of first-degree murder when the proof is evident or the presumption is great.
- Amendment J, which removes the provision in the constitution stating that “only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.”
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature and Secretary of State:
- No-Excuse Absentee Voting Amendment, which authorizes the Connecticut State Legislature to provide by law for no-excuse absentee voting, thereby allowing any voter to request a mail-in ballot.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Amendment 2, which establishes a constitutional right to hunt and fish in Florida.
- Amendment 5, to provide for an annual inflation adjustment for the value of the homestead property tax exemption.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the General Assembly:
- Amendment 1, to provide for a local option homestead property tax exemption and allow a county, municipality, or school system to opt out of the exemption.
- Amendment 2, which creates the Georgia Tax Court to have concurrent jurisdiction with superior courts.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Judicial Appointments and Confirmations Amendment, which changes the process for appointing and confirming district court judges to be the same as that used for supreme court justices and other higher court judges.
- Remove Legislature Authority to Limit Marriage to Opposite-Sex Couples Amendment, removing a provision in the constitution that states that “the legislature shall have the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.”
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- HJR 5: Citizenship Requirement for Voting Amendment, which amends the constitution to provide that only a citizen of the United States can vote in Idaho.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the General Assembly:
- HJR 3/HJR1, which removes the superintendent of public instruction from the gubernatorial line of succession.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Amendment 1, which prohibits local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote by providing in the constitution that only a citizen of the U.S., rather than every citizen of the U.S., can vote. The amendment also allows 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the general election to vote in primary elections.
- Amendment 2, which provides that if the governor dies, resigns, or is removed from office, the lieutenant governor would assume the office of governor for the remainder of the term, thereby creating a vacancy in the office of lieutenant governor.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Constitutional Amendment 1, which amends the constitution to require U.S. citizenship to be able to vote in Kentucky.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Outer Continental Shelf Revenues for Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund Amendment, requiring that federal revenue received from alternative and renewable energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to be deposited in the Coastal Protection and Restoration Fund.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the General Assembly:
- Question 1, adding a new article to the Maryland Constitution’s Declaration of Rights establishing a right to reproductive freedom, defined to include “the ability to make and effectuate decisions to prevent, continue, or end one’s own pregnancy.”
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Amendment 1, which extends the dedication of lottery-derived revenue to Environment and Natural Resources Fund for 25 years.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the General Assembly and Secretary of State:
- Constitutional Amendment 2, legalizing and regulating sports wagering in Missouri.
- Constitutional Amendment 3, adding a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, defined to include abortion and “all matters relating to reproductive health care,” to the constitution, among other provisions.
- Constitutional Amendment 7, which prohibits ranked-choice voting (RCV) and the state or local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Right to Abortion Initiative, which provides a state constitutional “right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion,” and allows the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, except when “medically indicated to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.”
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the Secretary of State:
- Initiative 434, amending the constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester unless necessitated by a medical emergency or the pregnancy is a result of sexual assault or incest.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Question 2, revising language in the constitution related to public entities that benefit individuals with mental illness, blindness, or deafness.
- Question 4, repealing language from the constitution that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments.
- Right to Abortion Initiative, providing for a state constitutional right to an abortion, providing for the state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, except where medically indicated to “protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.”
- Require Voter Identification Initiative, amending the constitution to require that Nevada residents present a form of photo identification to verify their identity while voting in person, or to verify their identity using the last four digits of their driver’s license or Social Security number when voting by mail.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Constitutional Amendment 1, which amends the constitution to extend the disabled veteran property tax exemption to all disabled veterans—or their widows or widowers—in proportion to their federal disability rating.
- Constitutional Amendment 2, which amends the constitution to increase the property tax exemption for veterans from $4,000 to $10,000 and adjust it annually for inflation.
- Constitutional Amendment 3, authorizing a designee of the dean of the University of New Mexico Law School to serve as chair of the judicial nomination commission and requiring the designee to be an associate dean, a faculty member, a retired faculty member, or a former dean of the law school.
- Constitutional Amendment 4, amending the constitution to authorize the board of county commissioners to set salaries for county officers and clarify that fees collected by the county are to be deposited into the county treasury.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Assembly:
- Proposal 1, which adds language to the New York Bill of Rights to provide that people cannot be denied rights based on their “ethnicity, national origin, age, and disability” or “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the Legislative Assembly:
- Constitutional Measure 1, amending language used in the constitution to describe certain state institutions such as changing “insane” to “individuals with mental illness,” “feebleminded” to “individuals with developmental disabilities,” and “deaf and dumb” to “deaf and hard of hearing.”
- Constitutional Measure 3, which decreases the amount of money that can be expended from the state legacy fund, a fund that receives 30% of tax revenue from oil and gas production, from 15% to 5% of the principal of the fund over a period of two years. The amendment also provides for a distribution to be made from the state legacy fund to a legacy earnings fund rather than have the accrued earnings be sent to the general fund.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Question 834, which amends the constitution to provide that only U.S. citizens who are 18 years old or older can vote in elections.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Measure 115, which allows the State Legislature to impeach and remove elected state executives, including the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, and commissioner of labor and industries.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Citizenship Requirement for Voting Amendment, which amends the constitution to add language that only U.S. citizens who are 18 years old or older can vote in elections.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Constitutional Amendment F, amending the constitution to provide that the State may impose a work requirement on eligible individuals who are not diagnosed as being mentally or physically disabled in order to receive Medicaid under the Medicaid expansion that took effect on July 1, 2023.
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Constitutional Amendment B, which increases the limit on annual distributions from the State School Fund for public education from 4% to 5% of the fund.
- Constitutional Amendment C, establishing in the constitution that every county shall elect a sheriff to serve for four-year terms.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the General Assembly:
- Property Tax Exemption for Veterans and Surviving Spouses Amendment, amending language in the constitution regarding property tax exemptions for veterans and surviving spouses to say, “died in the line of duty” rather than “killed in action.”
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Amendment 1, which prohibits people from participating in “the practice of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of a person.”
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Citizenship Voting Requirement Amendment, which adds language to the constitution that only U.S. citizens who are 18 years old or older can vote in federal, state, local, or school elections.
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the State Legislature:
- Property Tax on Residential Property and Owner-Occupied Primary Residences Amendment, which adds residential real property as a fourth, separate, class of property and authorizes the legislature to create a subclass of residential property for owner-occupied primary residences, which could be assessed at a different rate from other property in the residential property class.
From the August 6, 2024 Elections
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the General Assembly:
- Constitutional Amendment 4, allowing the Legislature to increase minimum funding for a police force established by a state board of police commissioners. The constitutional amendment, known as Senate Joint Resolution 38, was previously passed at the elections of 8 November 2022. The 2022 amendment was overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court and then officially passed at the elections held on August 6, 2024.
From the June 11, 2024 Elections
We have added the text of the constitutional amendment from the Secretary of State:
- Initiated Measure 1, which prevents an individual from being elected or appointed to serve in the United States Senate or United States House of Representatives if the individual would become 81 years old by December 31 of the year preceding the end of their term.
From the April 2, 2024 Elections
We have added the texts of the constitutional amendments from the State Legislature:
- Question 1, which prohibits any level of government in the state from applying or accepting non-governmental funds or equipment for election administration.
- Question 2, which provides that only election officials designated by law can administer elections.
From the November 7, 2023 Elections
We now include the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1974, as amended to 2023, from the State Senate.
We have added the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1938/1939, including amendments effective January 1, 2024, from the Department of State.
Now included is the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1851, as amended to 2023, from the Secretary of State.
We have added the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1875/1876, including amendments through the November 7, 2023 election from the Texas Legislative Council.
From the November 8, 2022 Elections
We now include the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1876, as amended to 2022, from the General Assembly.
Now included is the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1867, as amended to 2022, from Maryland Manual On-Line.
We have added the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1864, as amended to 2022, from the State Legislature.
Now included is the consolidated text of the Constitution of 1895, as amended to 2022, from the South Carolina Legislature.
State Constitutions Illustrated LibGuide
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