WWTBAM Bored

Waaaaay back in elementary school (late 1960s) in Alabama, when we first started studying civics and learned about the US Constitution, I thought, "why didn't they talk about the state constitution as well?"

So, the next time I went to the library, I asked if there was a copy there. I figured it's be something relatively simple, like the US Constitution.

Boy, was I wrong. She sent me to a series of books, about 20 linear feet worth, that comprised the Alabama Constitution of 1901 as it then was. It is even more so now, with 941 amendments. (Yes, you read that right. It has been amended 941 times in 119 years, with more pending with this election. Let that sink in for a minute.)

It considered the world's longest currently-active constitution; there is some debate as to whether the Constitution of India is longer, but that is because it is one constitution written in three languages.

There was an interesting article on how it was passed -- with some massive voter fraud -- back in the day.

https://www.al.com/opinion/2020/11/how- ... abama.html

It makes for an interesting read, and probably explains a lot of the issues that befall Alabama to this day.

SpacemanSpiff wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:58 am

Waaaaay back in elementary school (late 1960s) in Alabama, when we first started studying civics and learned about the US Constitution, I thought, "why didn't they talk about the state constitution as well?"

When I graduated law school, the Florida Bar Exam included a series of essay questions on various topics including Florida Constitutional law. Although they offered a class on the subject, I didn't take it and instead took a Bar Review course. I thought that the subjects to be covered might be things like how freedom of speech differs in Florida from the U.S. Constitution (states are free to interpret their own constitutions in ways to extend various freedoms even further, and if a state court reaches a decision on that basis, federal courts are not supposed to overturn it, which didn't matter to the Supreme Court majority in Bush v. Gore).

Instead, the course was a primer on various "gotchas" in the state constitution on technicalities like that laws are supposed to only cover one subject and other bits of trivia that provide litigants ticky tacky reasons to challenge various laws.