Paradox of Self-Amendment by Peter Suber 1875 AC: Article 15 1865 AC: Article 12 1820 AC: Article 12 AC amended? No. Comment. The 1875 AC was amended November 2, 1920. A new constitution was rejected by the voters in 1846. Montana Current constitution: 1972 AC: Article 14 Prior constitutions: 1889 AC: Article 9, §§8-9 AC amended? No. Comment. The 1889 AC §9 was amended November 3, 1970. Nebraska Current constitution: 1875 AC: Article 16 Prior constitutions: 1866 AC: Unnumbered AC amended? Yes. AC §1 was amended in 1952 and 1968, and AC §2 was amended in 1952. Nevada Current constitution: 1864 AC: Article 16 Prior constitutions: none AC amended? Yes. AC §1 was amended in 1972. Comment. Amendments to AC §1 and §2 were ratified in 1886 but declared invalid because not properly entered on the journal of either House. Stevenson v. Tufly, 19 Nev. 391 (1887). Article 1, §2 of the Nevada Bill of Rights declares that the people "have the right to alter or reform [their government] whenever the public good may require it." New Hampshire Current constitution: 1783 AC: Articles 99, 100 Prior constitutions: 1776 AC: none AC amended? Yes. AC (Article 100) was amended in 1793 and 1964. Comment. Article 1, §10 of the Bill of Rights asserts that "whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought, to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind." New Jersey Current constitution: 1947 AC: Article 9 Prior constitutions: 1844 AC: Article 9 1776 AC: none AC amended? No. Comment. The 1844 constitution was not made under the authority of the 1776 AC, since there was no 1776 AC. The 1844 constitution was drafted by a convention called by the General Assembly and ratified in a popular election. Article 5 (Powers of the General Assembly) of the 1776 constitution did not give the General Assembly the power to call a convention. Although the 1776 constitution did not contain an AC, it did suggest that amendment of the constitution of the colony (a different document) was possible by providing in Article 23 that legislators must take an oath not to "annul, repeal, or alter" certain sections of the charter. The last paragraph of the 1776 constitution provides for the conditional nullification of the whole constitution —"if a reconciliation between Great Britain and these Colonies should take place." New Mexico Current constitution: 1911 AC: Article 19 Prior constitutions: none AC amended? Yes. AC §§1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were amended November 7, 1911. Comment. The amendments to the AC noted above were required by Congress as a precondition of statehood. 37 Stat. 39 (August 21, 1911). New Mexico was the only state that had to amend its AC prior to admission to the Union. Without the federally required self-amendments, the AC was not substantially different from the ACs of many other states. AC §1 contains the procedures for ordinary amendment. AC §5 entrenches §1, immunizing it from amendment except by a convention called to revise the whole constitution. Nevertheless AC §1 has been amended circuitously by an ordinary amendment, as follows. AC §1 says (inter alia) that "any amendment...to this constitution may be proposed...at any regular session" of the legislature. An ordinary amendment to Article 4, §5.B (November 5, 1940) limited the types of action that the legislature could consider in even-numbered years to a short list that did not include constitutional amendments. Because the latter amendment was adopted later than AC §1, the limitation on even-numbered years amends the 183