CHAPTER 2 THE CONSTITUTION
| Jurisdiction | United States |
Chapter 2 The Constitution
"We the people of the State of Oregon to the end that Justice be established, order maintained, and liberty perpetuated, do ordain this Constitution."1
The Oregon Constitution was written and approved by the people of the Oregon Territory in 1857. It became effective on February 14, 1859, when Oregon was admitted to the Union.2
The provisions of the Oregon Constitution parallel many of the most familiar provisions of the United States Constitution. Article I of Oregon's constitution ensures religious freedom, the right to a jury trial, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Articles IV through VII provide for the legislative, executive, administrative, and judicial departments of the state government.
Like many state constitutions, the Oregon Constitution also covers some issues often thought of as being more statutory in nature. For example, in addition to the provisions mentioned above, Article I gives the state the power to permit the sale of liquor by the glass. Table 2-1 lists the articles of Oregon's constitution. Because of the breadth of issues covered by the Oregon Constitution, you should check to see whether a constitutional provision affects your research problem even when that possibility may seem unlikely.
| Article I | Bill of Rights |
| Article II | Suffrage and Elections |
| Article III | Distribution of Powers |
| Article IV | Legislative Department |
| Article V | Executive Department |
| Article VI | Administrative Department |
| Article VII | (Amended) Judicial Department |
| Article VII | (Original) The Judicial Department |
| Article VIII | Education and School Lands |
| Article IX | Finance |
| Article X | The Militia |
| Article XI | Corporations and Internal Improvements |
| Article XI-A | Farm and Home Loans to Veterans |
| Article XI-D | State Power Development |
| Article XI-E | State Reforestation |
| Article XI-F(1) | Higher Education Building Projects |
| Article XI-F(2) | Veterans' Bonus |
| Article XI-G | Higher Education Institutions and Activities; Community Colleges |
| Article XI-H | Pollution Control |
| Article XI-I(1) | Water Development Projects |
| Article XI-I(2) | Multifamily Housing for Elderly and Disabled |
| Article XI-J | Small Scale Local Energy Loans |
| Article XI-K | Guarantee of Bonded Indebtedness of Educational Districts |
| Article XI-L | Oregon Health and Science University |
| Article XI-M | Seismic Rehabilitation of Public Education Buildings |
| Article XI-N | Seismic Rehabilitation of Emergency Services Buildings |
| Article XI-O | Pension Liabilities |
| Article XII | State Printing |
| Article XIV | Seat of Government |
| Article XV | Miscellaneous |
| Article XVI | Boundaries |
| Article XVII | Amendments and Revisions |
| Article XVIII | Schedule |
Note: Article XIII has been repealed. It set 1857 salaries for key government officials (e.g., the Governor earned $1500 annually).
The Oregon Constitution is available on free government sites, on commercial sites, and in print. It is cited by article and section, for example, Or Const, Art IV, § 9.3
A. Free Online Sources for the Oregon Constitution
The full text of the constitution is available on the state legislature's website at www.oregonlegislature.gov. Click on "Bills and Laws" and then "Oregon Constitution" to review the text. To search for a particular term, use the ORS General Index, which includes references not only to statutes but also to constitutional provisions.
To find references to cases and other documents discussing the constitution, click on "Annotations," and locate the box labeled "Annotations to the Oregon Constitution."4 Each annotation contains a brief summary of the source referenced and its citation, which will enable you to locate the full source. Do not rely on the short summary; reading the text of the source itself will allow you to analyze its relevance to your research. Under the caption for the constitutional article and section that you are researching, you will find the annotations. If there are many annotations for that article and section, you may also find a short outline of annotations that appears just before the annotations themselves. Otherwise, all the annotations for that section will be listed together.
Additionally, the Oregon Blue Book5 provides both a web version and a PDF version of the constitution from www.bluebook.state.or.us/state.
B. The Oregon Constitution on Lexis and Westlaw
Often online services include constitutions in databases containing statutes, perhaps because historically constitutions were published in books along with statutes. Even when a separate database for the constitution exists, remembering this historical connection might help you locate the correct link.
To find the Oregon Constitution on Lexis Advance, go to "Browse," click on "Sources," and use the bar provided to search for that term. You can begin research either in the database "LexisNexis Oregon Annotated Constitution" or in the constitution's table of contents. In the table of contents, you have several alternatives, including (a) searching the table of contents itself using the bar provided and (b) scrolling through the list of articles to find sections that seem relevant. Another approach for beginning your search is to enter search terms in the universal search bar, then limit your search to "Statutes and Legislation" and "Oregon."
An easy way to access the Oregon Constitution on Westlaw is to type that term into the universal search bar. Alternatively, browsing content tabs on Westlaw, you can find the Oregon Constitution by clicking on "State Materials," then "Oregon," and finally "Oregon Statutes & Courts Rules." The link for the constitution appears after the numbered titles of the statutes. Either approach will lead to a screen listing the articles of the constitution. From there, you can use the universal search bar to construct a search. You can limit the search to particular articles or sections using the boxes next to the title of each. Another option is to scan the articles and sections listed, and open those that seem relevant so that you can browse their content. In a database with annotations, your research terms might appear just in the constitution, just in annotations, or in both. See Figure 2-1 for annotations related to Oregon's search and seizure provision, in Article 1, Section 9. The text of that provision is in Table 2-2, later in this chapter.
C. The Constitution in Oregon Revised Statutes
The Oregon Constitution is published in full every two years in Oregon Revised...
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