The Nebraska Constitution is the basic governing document of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sov ...

of Nebraska. All acts of the

Nebraska Legislature The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators", the Nebraska Legislature is the sma ...

, the governor, and each governmental agency are subordinate to it. The constitution has been amended 228 times since it was first adopted in 1875, most notably to include the creation of a unicameral legislature. It is nicknamed the Grasshopper Constitution due to the occurrence of

Albert's swarm Albert's swarm was an immense concentration of the Rocky Mountain locust that swarmed the Western United States in 1875. It was named after Albert Child, a physician interested in meteorology, who calculated the size of the swarm to by multiplyi ...

, an immense concentration of

grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshoppe ...

that scourged the Western United States in 1875, during the constitutional convention that drafted the constitution.

History

On February 8, 1867, the United States Congress voted to admit Nebraska as a state, provided that suffrage was not denied to non-white voters. The bill admitting Nebraska as a state was vetoed by President

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a De ...

, but the veto was overridden by a supermajority in both Houses of Congress, and Nebraska was

admitted to the Union ''Admitted'' is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language docudrama film directed by Chandigarh-based director Ojaswwee Sharma. The film is about Dhananjay Chauhan, the first transgender student at Panjab University. The role of Dhananjay Chauhan has been pl ...

. After a failed attempt to ratify a constitution in 1870, in 1874, the Nebraska Legislature proposed a constitutional convention to meet to draft a new constitution. This proposal was overwhelmingly approved by a popular vote of 18,067 to 3,880, and the convention, consisting of sixty-nine members, began meeting May 11, 1875. The Nebraska Constitution, based partly upon the 1870

Constitution of Illinois The Constitution of the State of Illinois is the governing document of the state of Illinois. There have been four Illinois Constitutions; the fourth and current version was adopted in 1970. The current constitution is referred to as the "Consti ...

, was adopted by the constitutional convention on June 12, 1875. This constitution became known as the Grasshopper Constitution, as it coincided with

, an immense concentration of

that invaded the Western United States. The constitution was ratified on October 12, 1875 after it was approved by a popular vote of 30,322 to 5,474, and

came into force In law, coming into force or entry into force (also called commencement) is the process by which legislation, regulations, treaties and other legal instruments come to have legal force and effect. The term is closely related to the date of thi ...

on November 1, 1875. With the addition of 228 amendments since its adoption, including the creation of a

unicameral legislature Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

, the 1875 Nebraska Constitution remains the basic law of the state to this day.

Preamble

The Nebraska Constitution Preamble reads: : ''We, the people, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, do ordain and establish the following declaration of rights and frame of government, as the Constitution of the State of Nebraska.''

Articles

The constitution consists of eighteen articles, excluding the Preamble. * Article I – Bill of Rights * Article II – Distribution of Powers * Article III – Legislative * Article IV – Executive * Article V – Judicial * Article VI – Suffrage * Article VII – Education * Article VIII – Revenue * Article IX – Counties * Article X – Public Service Corporations * Article XI – Municipal Corporations * Article XII – Miscellaneous Corporations * Article XIII – State, County, and Municipal Indebtedness * Article XIV – Militia * Article XV – Miscellaneous Provisions * Article XVI – Amendments * Article XVII – Schedule * Article XVIII – Term Limits on Congress

References

External links

Current Nebraska Constitution
{{Constitutions of the United States Legal history of Nebraska Government of Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska law

History

Preamble

Articles

See also

References

External links