Paradox of Self-Amendment by Peter Suber Washington Current constitution: 1889 AC: Article 23 Prior constitutions: none AC amended? Yes. AC §1 was amended in November of 1912 (by the 7th Amendment, which became Article 2, §1.d) and again on November 6, 1962. West Virginia Current constitution: 1872 AC: Article 14 Prior constitutions: 1861 AC: Article 12 AC amended? Yes. AC §2 was amended November 8, 1960, and November 7, 1972. Comment. Article 3, §3 of the Bill of Rights asserts that "a majority of the community has an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish [its government] in such a manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal." Wisconsin Current constitution: 1848 AC: Article 12 Prior constitutions: none AC amended? No? Comment. Wisconsin drafted its first constitution in 1846 under a federal enabling act, and early in 1847 was admitted to the Union on the condition that its new constitution was ratified by its citizens. The people of Wisconsin rejected the constitution, however, and admission to the Union was postponed. Another constitutional convention was called in 1847 to draft a new constitution. Jameson believes that the original federal enabling act did not extend to the new convention; John Alexander Jameson, A Treatise on Constitutional Conventions, Callahan and Co., 4th ed. 1887, §§188ff. Hence on this view Wisconsin joins the states whose first constitutions were not antecedently authorized. Wyoming Current constitution: 1889 AC: Article 20 Prior constitutions: none AC amended? No. Comment. Article 1, §1 of the Declaration of Rights asserts that the people "have at all times an inalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper." Notes 1. Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Tennessee, and Wisconsin; see John Alexander Jameson, A Treatise on Constitutional Conventions, Callahan and Co., 4th ed. 1887, §§188ff. Wisconsin is on this list because of some very interesting history; see the entry under Wisconsin in the text. 2. Cooley says that these constitutions were made irregularly by the spontaneous action of the people, or under the direction of the legislative or executive authority of the Territory to which the State succeeded. Where the irregularities existed, they must be regarded as having been cured by the subsequent admission of the State in to the Union by Congress. Thomas M. Cooley, A Treatise on Constitutional Limitations, Little, Brown and Co., 8th (Carrington) ed., 1927, vol. 1, pp. 80-81. On cure by admission to the Union see Secombe v. Kittelson, 28 Minn. 555 (1882), concerning amendments irregularly made to the Minnesota constitution before Minnesota became a state. See Yawitz, "The Legal Effect Under American Decisions of Alleged Irregularities in the Adoption of a Constitution or Constitutional Amendment," St. Louis Law Review, 10 (1925) 279; Wayne B. Wheeler, "The Constitutionality of the Constitution is Not a Justiciable Question," Century Law Review, 90 (1920) 152. 3. Richard A. Edwards (ed.), Index Digest to State Constitutions, Columbia University Press, 1959. However, it is valid only up to September 1, 1958, and only covers the then-current constitutions. Less abbreviated and better annotated is Walter Farleigh Dodd, The Revision and Amendment of State Constitutions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1910, but it is valid only up to 1910. Dodd's work is supplemented to some extent by T.R. White, "Amendment and Revision of State Constitutions," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 100 (1952) 1132-52. The full texts of all state constitutions as of 1918 are collected in Charles Kettleborough's The State Constitutions, B.F. Bowen and Co., 1918. (It also includes the basic laws of the District of Columbia and the organic acts of Alaska, Hawaii, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guano Islands, Midway Islands, Tutaila, and Wake Island.) The full texts as of 1962 have been collected in a looseleaf service that is supposed to be updated regularly, although it is less current for some states than for others, and usually less current than the state statute books: Constitutions of the United States: National and State, Oceana Publications, 1967. A more complete service, though even slower to be updated, is William P. Swindler (ed.), Sources and Documents of the United States Constitutions, Oceana Publications, 1973, 10 volumes (not a looseleaf service). Recent amendments and revisions, and the procedures under which they came about, are well summarized in Albert L. Sturm, Thirty Years of State Constitution-Making, 1938-1968, National Municipal League, 1970, and the Council of State Governments, Modernizing State Constitutions, 1966-1972, Council of State Governments, 1973. 187