Series: Exploring State Constitutions
We’ve asked an expert from each state to dive into their constitution, narrate its history, identify its quirks, and summarize its most essential components for our readers.
California’s Constitution Is For the People
One of the nation’s most influential constitutions, California’s charter protects direct democracy, limits taxation, and secures individual liberty.
David A. Carrillo is the executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center and coauthor of the casebook California Constitutional Law.
Danny Y. Chou is a California Court of Appeal Justice, a former supervising staff attorney for a California Supreme Court justice, and coauthor of the casebook California Constitutional Law.
Kansas’s Constitution Is a Source of Expanded Rights
Kansans enjoy broad rights to bear arms, reproductive autonomy, and education.
Stephen R. McAllister is the E.S. & Tom W. Hampton Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law. He was previously the U.S. Attorney for Kansas and the state solicitor general.
A Constitution Unique to Montana and Uniquely Montanan
The state’s 1972 charter is populist, pro-conservation, and libertarian.
Constance Van Kley is an Assistant Professor at the Blewett School of Law at the University of Montana, where she teaches federal and state constitutional law.
The Utah State Constitution Is ‘Distinctively Undistinctive’
The original charter sought to limit the influence of the state’s distinct religious history.
Adam R. Brown is an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University.
Idaho’s Constitution Promotes Freedom and Common Welfare
The state is still governed by its original constitution, drafted in 1889.
Kevin Frazier is an AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
North Carolina’s Constitution of Contrasts
The state’s 55-year-old constitution offers progressive protections like a right to education while retaining elements of state-sponsored efforts to prevent Black progress in the post-Reconstruction era.
Marcus Gadson is an assistant professor of law at Campbell University, where he teaches state constitutional law.
The Massachusetts Constitution: the Oldest in the United States, and Often Ahead of its Time
A Massachusetts state court was the first to uphold the right to same-sex marriage on constitutional grounds.
Martha F. Davis is a university distinguished professor at the Northeastern University School of Law.
The Florida Constitution: For the People?
Citizen support for constitutional amendments has been undermined by the legislature’s interpretation of those initiatives.
Mary E. Adkins is a professor emerita at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She has written extensively on the Florida Constitution and is the author of Making Modern Florida: How the Spirit of Reform Shaped a New Constitution.
