The Constitution of the State of Utah defines the basic form and operation of state government in Utah.

History

The Utah Constitution was drafted at a convention that opened on March 4, 1895 in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

. The

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

was later approved by the citizens of

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. It took 7 times to get the constitution approved by the government.Paul Wake, Fundamental Principles, Individual Rights, and Free Government: Do Utahns Remember How to Be Free?
/ref> Utahns had drafted seven previous constitutions starting in 1849 as part of repeated attempts to become a state. However, Congress refused to admit Utah (or Deseret, as the territory originally wished to be called), until the

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

settlers of Utah renounced

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

Rights enshrined in the Utah Constitution

Beginning with ''Hansen v. Owens'', 619 P.2d 315 (Utah 1980), the

Utah Supreme Court The Utah Supreme Court is the supreme court of the state of Utah, United States. It has final authority of interpretation of the Utah Constitution. The Utah Supreme Court is composed of five members: a chief justice, an associate chief justice, ...

embarked upon a short-lived venture during which the court interpreted Article I, § 12 of the Utah Constitution as providing greater protection against self-incrimination than that which is provided by the Fifth Amendment. The ''Hansen'' decision was based upon the unique language of Article I, § 12, which speaks in terms being compelled "to give evidence against neelf" rather than being compelled "to be a witness against neelf." A mere five years later the court retreated from this position and in ''American Fork City v. Crosgrove'', 701 P.2d 1069 (Utah 1985), overruled ''Hansen''. This, however, did not put an end to the notion that the Utah Constitution may provide greater protection than does the federal

Bill of Rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pr ...

. It is now clear that Article I, § 14 of the Utah Constitution provides greater protection to the privacy of the home and automobiles than does the Fourth Amendment. The expansion of the protection afforded by the state constitution has not been based upon distinctions in the language used, nor has it been the result of Utah's unique political and religious history. The Utah Supreme Court has embraced broader constructions as "an appropriate method for insulating this state's citizens from the vagaries of inconsistent interpretations given to the fourth amendment by the federal courts." The Utah Supreme Court has repeatedly invited litigants to raise and adequately brief state constitutional issues. In ''Brigham City v. Stuart'', 2005 UT 13, ¶10, 122 P. 3d 506, 510, the Utah Supreme Court expressed "surpris in " e reluctance of litigants to take up and develop a state constitutional analysis," ibid., the court expressly invited future litigants to bring challenges under the Utah Constitution to enable it to fulfill its "responsibility as guardians of the individual liberty of our citizens" and "undertak a principled exploration of the interplay between federal and state protections of individual rights," id., at 511.

Unusual provisions

The original and current editions of the constitution have some unusual or unique provisions: * Originally, a

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England du ...

was to be eight people at most (unless for a trial of a person charged with a capital crime) and seven for a grand jury, and four for inferior courts. * Spousal privilege is only for 1 man and 1 woman together and not polygamy *

Voting machine A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use '' electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defi ...

s (referred to as "mechanical contrivance ) are allowed provided they be

secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

. *

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 ...

was explicitly allowed "as a punishment for crime" until it was repealed by voters in 2020. *

Women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

and equality is guaranteed in all matters. ** Minimum wage for women and minors * An ordinance was added which required the consent of the United States, as well as the state, to revoke or alter parts of the constitution. In part: ** Besides the normal (And previously stated) freedom of religion,

and "plural marriages" are "forever prohibited". ** Public schooling is required and must be "free from sectarian control" this is stated twice, once in the Ordinance, and once in Article X ("Education"). *

Lotteries A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...

and other forms of

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

cannot be legalized * Once an impeachable official is served a notice of impeachment, the official automatically loses the powers of the office until acquitted. * A two-thirds supermajority is required to specify the enactment of an act at a time other than the default. * The Governor may call both chambers of the Utah Legislature, or only the

Utah State Senate The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Senate is composed of 29 elected members representing an equal number of senate districts. Each senate district is ...

, into

extraordinary session In a legislature, a special session (also extraordinary session) is a period when the body convenes outside of the normal legislative session. This most frequently occurs in order to complete unfinished tasks for the year (often delayed by confli ...

, but not the House of Representatives alone. * The Governor, Attorney General, and the Auditor comprise the Board of Prison Commissioners and Insane Asylum Commissioners, and with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Board of Reform School Commissioners. * No Judge can appoint a relative closer than a

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

to his court. * A judge out of state for more than 90 days running automatically loses his bench. * An

agricultural college This article lists agricultural universities and colleges around the world, by continent and country. Africa Algeria * Higher National Agronomic School (French name: Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique) Benin * Agricultural University of ...

must be supported by the state * The Legislature and State Board of Education are forbidden from selecting the

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

s to be used. * The schools of the state must teach the

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the Interna ...

, Article X § 11 (repealed). * Corporations running prior to the adoption of the constitution had to explicitly agree (by filing an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...

with the Utah Secretary of State) to the new constitution. * No one may bring an "armed ... bod of men" into the state without approval. * Labor

blacklist Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, ...

ing is explicitly outlawed. * Women and children under the age of 14 are prohibited from working in underground mines * Prison labor is prohibited outside of the prison, unless for

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, sc ...

projects * Blacklists and their exchange are prohibited * Eight hours is a full day for workers on public projects. * Forests of the state get a one section article (XVIII) requiring they be preserved. * Besides the state capitol, the location of the

state fair A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in th ...

, special schools,

state prison This is a list of U.S. state prisons (2010) (not including federal prisons or county jails in the United States or prisons in U.S. territories): * Alabama * Alaska * Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Connecticut * Delaware ...

, reform school, and insane asylum are explicitly set down, and "permanently located". * When voting for or against the draft constitution, voters were to be given a ballot with both "yes" ''and'' "no". They then had to erase the word they ''dis''agreed with (that is, erase "no" to vote "yes").

References

{{Constitutions of the United States

Utah law Government of Utah

History

Rights enshrined in the Utah Constitution

Unusual provisions

See also

References