![1830VAConstConv01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/1830VAConstConv01.jpg)
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the
state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the
Commonwealth of Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
. Like all other
state constitutions, it is supreme over Virginia's laws and acts of government, though it may be superseded by the
United States Constitution and U.S.
federal law
Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a group of political units, such as states or provinces join in a federation, delegating their individual sovereignty and many po ...
as per the
Supremacy Clause
The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States ( Article VI, Clause 2) establishes that the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority, constitute the "supreme Law of the Land", and thu ...
.
The original Virginia Constitution of 1776 was enacted at the time of the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...
by the first
thirteen states
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...
of the United States of America. Virginia was an early state to adopt its own Constitution on June 29, 1776, and the document was widely influential both in the United States and abroad.
In addition to frequent
amendments An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...
, there have been six major subsequent revisions of the constitution (by Conventions for the constitutions of 1830, 1851, 1864, 1870, 1902, and by commission for 1971 amendments). These new constitutions have been part of, and in reaction to, periods of major regional or social upheaval in Virginia. For instance, the 1902 constitution included provisions to
disenfranchise African Americans, who in 1900 made up nearly 36% of the state's population.
They did not regain suffrage until after the enactment of federal
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...
legislation in the mid-1960s.
Historic constitutions
1776
The preparation of the first Virginia Constitution began in early 1776, in the midst of the early events of the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
. Among those who drafted the 1776 Constitution were
George Mason
George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...
and
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
was Virginia's representative to the
Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia at the time, and his drafts of the Virginia constitution arrived too late to be incorporated into the final document. James Madison's work on the Virginia Constitution helped him develop the ideas and skills that he would later use as one of the main architects of the
United States Constitution.
The 1776 Constitution declared the dissolution of the rule of Great Britain over Virginia and accused England's King
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
of establishing a "detestable and insupportable tyranny". It also established separation of governmental powers, with the creation of the
bicameral Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...
as the legislative body of the state and the
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
as the "chief magistrate" or executive. The accompanying
Virginia Declaration of Rights
The Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men, including the right to reform or abolish "inadequate" government. It influenced a number of later documents, including the United States Declaratio ...
, written primarily by Mason, focuses on guarantees of basic human rights and freedoms and the fundamental purpose of government. It, in turn, served as a model for a number of other historic documents, including the
United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rai ...
.
Critically, the 1776 Constitution limited the right to vote primarily to property owners and men of wealth. This effectively concentrated power in the hands of the landowners and aristocracy of Southeastern Virginia.
Dissatisfaction with this power structure would come to dominate Virginia's constitutional debate for almost a century.
1830
By the 1820s, Virginia was one of only two states that limited voting to landowners. In addition, because representation was by county rather than population, the residents of increasingly populous Western Virginia (the area that would become
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
in 1863) had grown discontented at their limited representation in the legislature.
Pressure increased until a
constitutional convention was convened in 1829–1830. This convention became largely a contest between eastern Virginia
planters
Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentil ...
of the slaveholding elite and the less affluent yeomen farmers of Western Virginia. Issues of representation and
suffrage dominated the debate. Delegates to the convention included such prominent Virginians as
James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
,
James Monroe
James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
,
John Tyler
John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig tick ...
, and
John Marshall. Western leaders included
Philip Doddridge
Philip Doddridge D.D. (26 June 1702 – 26 October 1751) was an English Nonconformist (specifically, Congregationalist) minister, educator, and hymnwriter.
Early life
Philip Doddridge was born in London the last of the twenty children of ...
and
Alexander Campbell.
The convention ultimately compromised by loosening suffrage requirements. It also reduced the number of delegates and senators to the
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...
. The resulting constitution was ratified by a popular majority, though most of the voters in the western part of the state ended up voting against it. Thus, the underlying intrastate tensions remained, and would have to be addressed later.
1851
As of the 1840
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
, the majority of the white residents of the state lived in western Virginia, but they were underrepresented in the legislature because of the continued property requirement for voting; not all held sufficient property to vote. This compounded their dissatisfaction with the apportionment scheme adopted in 1830, which was based on counties rather than population, thus giving disproportionate power to the fewer, but propertied whites who lived in the eastern part of the state and kept a grip on the legislature. As the state legislature also elected the governor and the United States senators, Western Virginians felt they had little influence on state leadership. Their attempts to win electoral reform in the Virginia legislature were defeated each time. Some began to openly discuss the
abolition of slavery or
secession
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...
from the state. Ultimately, the eastern planters could not continue to ignore their discontent, and a new constitutional convention was called to resolve the continuing tensions.
The most significant change adopted in the 1851 Constitution was elimination of the property requirement for voting, resulting in extension of the suffrage to all white males of voting age. The 1851 Constitution established popular election for 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 ...
, the newly created office of
lieutenant governor, and all Virginia judges, rather than the election of the top two state officers by the legislature, or political appointment for judges. Because of these changes, the 1851 Virginia Constitution became known as the "Reform Constitution".
1864
When in 1861, the Virginia legislature voted for secession in the events leading up to the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, all of the western and several of the northern counties dissented. They set up a
separate government with
Francis H. Pierpont as governor. During the Civil War, this separate or "restored" government approved the creation of
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
as a separate state (which was admitted to the Union in 1863) and in 1864 it approved a new Constitution.
[Salmon (1994), pp.45–47.] The constitution was the product of a divided state and government; it was the first since the original 1776 Constitution to be adopted by the legislature without a popular vote.
The 1864 Constitution abolished
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
in Virginia,
disenfranchised
Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...
men who had served in the
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
government, recognized the creation of the
State of West Virginia, and adjusted the number and terms of office of the members of the
Virginia Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 1619 ...
.
The
foreword to the current Virginia Constitution does not include the 1864 Constitution in its list of previous constitutions. It notes that the 1864 Constitution was drafted under wartime conditions and was of uncertain legal status.
1870
After the end of the Civil War, Virginia came briefly under military rule during Reconstruction, with the district commanded by
John M. Schofield. Pursuant to federal
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
legislation, Schofield called for a new constitutional convention to meet in Richmond from December 1867 to April 1868. In protest of
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
's suffrage, many of Virginia's conservative whites refused to participate in voting for delegates.
As a result, Republicans led by Judge
John Curtiss Underwood
John Curtiss Underwood (March 14, 1809 – December 7, 1873) was an attorney, abolitionist politician and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia and the United States District Court for ...
dominated the convention. Opponents called the result the "Underwood Constitution" or the "Negro Constitution", as it gave freedmen suffrage.
Significant provisions included expanding the suffrage to all male citizens over the age of 21, which included
freedmen
A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...
; establishing a state public school system for the first time, with mandatory funding and attendance; and providing for judges to be elected by the General Assembly rather than by popular vote. Controversy over clauses that continued the temporary disenfranchisement of former Confederate government members delayed the adoption of the Constitution. An eventual compromise provided for separate voting disenfranchisement clauses and the rest of the Constitution; the former failed to win approval.
The remainder of the Underwood Constitution was ratified by a popular vote of 210,585 to 9,136, and went into effect in 1870.
1902
In the late nineteenth century, white Democrats regained power in state legislatures across the South. They passed
Jim Crow laws establishing
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in public facilities and restricting the lives of blacks. Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, legislatures began to ratify new constitutions, amendments or electoral laws that
disenfranchised
Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
voters, devising means such as
poll taxes
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...
,
literacy tests and residential requirements that passed Supreme Court review but worked against poor blacks and many poor whites. By the turn of the 20th century, six
Southern states had essentially eliminated the black vote, and pressure mounted among whites in Virginia to do the same, ostensibly as a way to stop electoral fraud and corruption.
The
1901 constitutional convention met in this climate. Members were focused on restricting black voting rights without violating the
Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or disenfranchising poor whites. Led by the future
Senator Carter Glass
Carter Glass (January 4, 1858 – May 28, 1946) was an American newspaper publisher and Democratic politician from Lynchburg, Virginia. He represented Virginia in both houses of Congress and served as the United States Secretary of the Treas ...
, the convention created requirements that all prospective voters had to pay
poll taxes
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...
or pass a literacy test administered by white registrars. An exemption was granted, in a kind of
grandfather clause
A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...
, for military
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that h ...
s and sons of veterans, who were virtually all white. The changes effectively disenfranchised black voters, though many
illiterate
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...
whites were also unable to meet the new requirements. In 1900 blacks made up nearly 36 percent of the population.
[Historical Census Browser, 1900 Federal Census, University of Virginia](_blank)
, accessed March 15, 2008 In succeeding elections, the Virginia electorate was reduced by nearly half as a result of the changes. When adjusted for
the Nineteenth Amendment, voter turnout would not return to 1900 levels until 1952 within a statewide population almost twice the size. The small electorate was key to maintaining the dominant Democratic Organization in power for sixty years.
Other significant provisions of the 1902 Constitution imposed
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in public schools (which already existed on a ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' basis) and abolished the county court system. The Constitution provided for the creation of the
State Corporation Commission to regulate the growing power of the railroads. Because of concern over African-American opposition, the convention did not honor its pledge to have the proposed constitution put to popular vote. Like the 1864 Constitution by the Loyalist government during the Civil War, the legislature adopted the 1902 Constitution without ratification by the electorate. It was in effect far longer than any previous Virginia constitution.
Current constitution (1971)
![Mills Godwin 1974](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Mills_Godwin_1974.jpg)
As a result of the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
's challenging the restrictions and discrimination practiced against blacks' exercise of constitutional rights, a series of
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
cases, beginning with ''
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
'' in 1954, the
24th Amendment
The Twenty-fourth Amendment (Amendment XXIV) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was ...
, and federal legislation: the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 had overturned the most controversial aspects of the 1902 Constitution – the provisions restricting voting by African Americans and mandating school segregation. Combined with the election of
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 ...
Mills Godwin
Mills Edwin Godwin Jr. (November 19, 1914January 30, 1999) was an American politician who was the 60th and 62nd governor of Virginia for two non-consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978.
In his first term, he was a member of ...
in 1965, there was impetus for governmental change. Godwin strongly advocated the loosening of the strict constitutional restrictions on state-issued bonds and borrowing, and used his power and popularity to push for a new constitution. In 1968 a joint resolution of the
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...
approved a new commission, chaired by former Governor
Albertis Harrison, to revise the constitution.
The Commission on Constitutional Revision presented its report and recommendations to Governor Godwin and the General Assembly in January 1969, and continued to work with them to draft a final consensus version. The proposed Constitution was overwhelmingly approved by the voters of Virginia (who by then included African-American men and women, following passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s) and took effect on July 1, 1971.
Since 1971, additional amendments have been passed by the General Assembly and approved by the voters to conform to provisions in the U.S. Constitution, rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and Congressional statute. The voting age has been reduced to eighteen, voting residency requirements have been removed, and voter registration conforms to the Motor Voter Act. Additionally, the Virginia Constitution now provides for a General Assembly session following a governor's veto, and the right of the people to hunt, fish and harvest game is guaranteed. In 2006, Virginians passed an amendment limiting marriage to "unions between one man and one woman". That has since been overturned by ''
Obergefell v. Hodges
''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...
'' (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States.
The current Constitution of Virginia consists of twelve Articles:
Article I – Bill of Rights
Article I contains the entire original
Virginia Declaration of Rights
The Virginia Declaration of Rights was drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men, including the right to reform or abolish "inadequate" government. It influenced a number of later documents, including the United States Declaratio ...
from the 1776 Constitution. Several of the sections have been expanded to incorporate concepts from the
United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rai ...
, including the right to
due process, the prohibition against
double jeopardy
In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare case ...
, and the
right to bear arms
The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, including securi ...
. Like the Federal Constitution, the Virginia Bill of Rights, in §17, states that the listing of certain rights is not to be construed to exclude other rights held by the people.
In 1997, a
Victims' Rights Amendment
In the United States, the Victims' Rights Amendment is a provision which has been included in some states' constitutions, proposed for other states, and additionally has been proposed for inclusion in the United States Constitution. Its provisio ...
was added to the Virginia Bill of Rights as §8-A. In ''Nobrega v. Commonwealth,'' the only case so far to interpret this amendment, the
Virginia Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrativ ...
used the Victims's Rights Amendment to support its ruling that an alleged rape victim could not be compelled to submit to a psychiatric evaluation.
On November 7, 2006, Virginia voters ratified an amendment, previously approved by the General Assembly, prohibiting
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
, to be added to the Bill of Rights. This amendment also prohibits the recognition of any "union, partnership, or other legal status" between unmarried people that intends to approximate marriage or which confers the "rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage." The
Virginia Attorney General
The attorney general of Virginia is an elected constitutional position that holds an executive office in the government of Virginia. Attorneys general are elected for a four-year term in the year following a presidential election. There are no ter ...
issued an opinion stating that the amendment does not change the legal status of documents such as contracts, wills, or
Advanced Medical Directives between unmarried people. The amendment was declared to be in violation the United States Constitution by a U.S. District Court Judge on February 13, 2014. (In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''
Obergefell v. Hodges
''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...
'' that the failure to provide for same-sex marriage by any
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 ...
had the effect of violating the rights of homosexuals to
equal protection of law required under the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.)
Article II – Franchise and Officers
The second Article of the Constitution sets out the procedures and mechanisms for voting, elections and holding office. Pursuant to Section 1, any Virginia resident over age 18 may vote in state elections; the voting age was reduced from 21 by a 1972 amendment to the federal constitution. However, § 1 denies the vote to people who have been determined to be mentally incompetent
or anyone convicted of a felony. Disfranchising convicted felons has been found to be consistent with the
Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The General Assembly, pursuant to §4, is given wide power to regulate the time, place, and manner of all elections.
§5 establishes that the only qualifications to hold office in Virginia are that a person must have been a Virginia resident for at least one year and eligible to vote. Any statute or rule requiring other qualifications is constitutionally invalid under this section. But, the General Assembly can impose local residency requirements for election to local governmental bodies or for election to the Assembly in representation of particular districts.
Article III – Division of Powers
Article III has one section, confirming the principle of
separation of powers
Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typic ...
between the
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...
,
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dir ...
and
judicial
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
branches of government. Unlike the U.S. federal Constitution, the Virginia Constitution explicitly provides that no branch may exercise powers that properly belong to the others. Separation between the branches of government is also listed as a right of the people in §5 of Article I.
Article IV – Legislature
Article IV establishes the basic structure and authority of the Virginia legislature. The legislative power of the state is vested in the
Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...
, which consists of the
Virginia Senate
The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...
and the
Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...
. §17 of Article IV gives the legislature the power to
impeach
Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements.
In ...
members of the executive and judicial branches.
The original §14 of Article IV forbade the incorporation of churches, though the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision, in its 1969 report, had recognized that the prohibition was probably invalid. The federal district court for the Western District of Virginia ruled in April 2002 that this provision of the Virginia Constitution was in fact unconstitutional, because it violates the federal constitutional right to the free exercise of religion. The court found that it is unconstitutional to deny a church the option to incorporate under state law when other groups can incorporate. An amendment striking the ban on church incorporation was approved by Virginia voters in November 2006.
Article V – Executive
The fifth Article similarly defines the structure and powers of the executive branch. The
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
is invested as the chief executive, though §1 of Article V, provides that the governor may not run for successive terms. The offices of
lieutenant governor and
attorney general are established as supporting elected constitutional positions.
The constitutional powers of the governor include the ability to sign legislation,
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
bills (which veto may then be overridden by a two-thirds majority of both houses of the assembly), and issue
pardons
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
.
Article VI – Judiciary
Article VI vests judicial power in the
Supreme Court of Virginia, along with the subordinate courts created by the General Assembly. Judges are appointed by a majority vote in the General Assembly to terms of 12 years for Supreme Court Justices and 8 years for other judges. The Supreme Court, pursuant to §5, has the authority to make rules governing the practice of law and procedures in the courts of the commonwealth (se
rules, and the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is established as the administrative head of the Virginia judicial system.
Article VII – Local Government
Article VII of the Constitution sets up the basic framework for the structure and function of
local government in Virginia The administrative divisions of Virginia are the areas into which the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, is divided for political and administrative purposes. Some are local governments; others are not. However, all local governments (countie ...
. Local government may be established at the
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
(population over 1000),
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
(population over 5000),
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
or
regional government level. Article VII gives the General Assembly the power to create general laws for the organization and governing of these political subdivisions, except that regional governments cannot be created without the consent of the majority of the voters who vote on the issue in the region.
Section 4 establishes the constitutional offices of
treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury ...
,
sheriff,
Commonwealth's Attorney
In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a lo ...
,
clerk of court
A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to witn ...
and
Commissioner of the Revenue to be elected within each city and county in Virginia.
Article VIII – Education
A compulsory and free
primary and
secondary public education for every Virginia child is the focus of Article VIII. The General Assembly is empowered to determine the funding for the educational system and apportion the cost between state and local government. A state
Board of Education is established to create school divisions and effectuate the overall educational policies. Supervision of the individual schools is delegated to local school boards, provided for in §7.
Article IX – Corporations
The primary purpose of Article IX is to create the Virginia
State Corporation Commission, which is charged with administering the laws that regulate
corporations. The State Corporation Commission also issues charters for Virginia corporations and licenses to do business for "foreign" (non-Virginia) corporations. Section 5 of Article IX prohibits such foreign corporations from doing anything in Virginia that a Virginia corporation could not do.
Article X – Taxation and Finance
Article X establishes the basic structure for taxation of
personal property in Virginia. Pursuant to this Article, all non-exempt real and personal property is subject to taxation at its fair market value. Section 6 sets out a lengthy list of exempt property, which includes church property, cemeteries, and
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
school property.
Significant additions to Article X include §7, a budget amendment, which became effective in 1986, and §7-A, which establishes the "Lottery Proceeds Fund", requiring that all proceeds from the
lottery be set aside for educational purposes.
Article XI – Conservation
Article XI states that it is the general policy of the Commonwealth to preserve, protect and conserve the state's
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
and historic resources. The General Assembly is permitted to further these policies by entering into
public-private partnerships or partnerships with federal agencies.
A 2001 amendment added §4, which establishes
hunting
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...
and
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
as constitutional rights of Virginians, though the legislature may enact appropriate regulations and restrictions on these rights.
Article XII – Future changes
The last Article creates the mechanism for future changes to the Constitution. Any amendment to the Constitution must first be passed by a majority in each of the two legislative houses. The proposed amendment must then be held over for consideration by the succeeding elected legislature, where it must again be passed by a majority in each house. The amendment then goes on the general
ballot
A ballot is a device used to cast votes in an election and may be found as a piece of paper or a small ball used in secret voting. It was originally a small ball (see blackballing) used to record decisions made by voters in Italy around the 16 ...
and becomes enacted into the Constitution if approved by a majority of the voters.
Alternatively, a two-thirds vote of both Virginia houses may call for the creation of a
constitutional convention. Any revisions or amendments proposed by the constitutional convention are presented to the citizens of Virginia and become law upon approval by a majority of voters.
There is a perennial discussion over Virginia's unique Constitutional status restricting its governor to one consecutive term, and its method of selecting both trial and appellate judges by state legislature, shared only with South Carolina.
[Dinan (2006). p. 24]
See also
*
Law of Virginia
The law of Virginia consists of several levels of legal rules, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory, case law, and local laws. The ''Code of Virginia'' contains the codified legislation that define the general statutory laws for the Co ...
*
Virginia Conventions
The Virginia Conventions have been the assemblies of delegates elected for the purpose of establishing constitutions of fundamental law for the Commonwealth of Virginia superior to General Assembly legislation. Their constitutions and subseque ...
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
External links
Constitution of Virginia (current version, adopted 1971)Text of the 1776 Constitution
{{good article
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
Virginia law
1971 in law
Legal history of Virginia
African-American segregation in the United States
1776 establishments in Virginia