A new constitution for Alabama

Alabama has the dubious distinction of having the longest written constitution in the world. That’s right, the world!

The Constitution of Alabama has been amended more than 800 times. Amendments should be something rare, not common. Alabama’s constitution is government micromanagement at its worst. The converse is true for our nation’s framework of government found in its constitution, which in 222 years has been amended only 27 times.

Soon after the alleged passage of the 1901 Constitution citizens began demanding a new constitution. The word alleged is used because the election of 1901 was full of voter fraud. The election was a strong-arm attempt of the wealthy and large landowners of the state to disenfranchise poor white citizens and all black citizens. It certainly was successful in that regard.

In the early 1980s the constitution was almost revised in its entirety through one cumulative amendment, but the court struck that effort down.

In the 1990s an effort was made to revise articles one by one but as of this date no article of which there are 16 have been revised in recent years.

Several years ago the constitution was recompiled, which served to remove the dead language and organize the document. While this helped some it did not go near far enough.

In the last few years Speaker Pro Tempore Demetrius Newton D-Birmingham has lead the charge for a constitutional convention. While we are doubtful of the ultimate success of a convention (there are just too many issues to resolve) we believe this approach should be given a chance. A convention of citizens from every corner of the state looking to our state’s future with hope and promise whose sole charge is to develop a functional framework of government for Alabama.

It took three votes of the Rules Committee before a successful vote was taken to bring Newton’s resolution to the floor of the House of Representatives. However, the resolution fell far short of the 53-vote requirement for passage. Sadly, only 36 of 105 members voted to give citizens of this state the right to present a new constitution to the electorate of the state.

We applaud Speaker Pro Tempore Newton on his efforts and hope he will continue the fight. In his closing remarks upon the defeat of his resolution he eloquently reminded the member of the phoenix arising from the ashes and vowed to fight again another day for the citizens of the state.