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 sove ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. 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 sm ...

, the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, 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 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 multi ...

legislature. It is nicknamed the Grasshopper Constitution due to the occurrence of Albert's swarm, 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. Grasshop ...

that scourged the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

in 1875, during the constitutional convention that drafted the constitution.

History

On February 8, 1867, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

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, 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 p ...

. 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 "Constit ...

, was adopted by the constitutional convention on June 12, 1875. This constitution became known as the Grasshopper Constitution, as it coincided with Albert's swarm, 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 this t ...

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 multi ...

, 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 law

History

Preamble

Articles

See also

References

External links