Constitution revision commissions avoid logrolling, don't they?

• Author: Armitage, Kelley H.
• Position: Florida

Constitutional revision is not for the faint of heart.[1] Compared to the constitutional convention, that unique, 200-year-old invention of American political practice, the constitutional commission is of relatively recent vintage. It is only about a century old. In fact, in his 1887 Treatise on Constitutional Conventions, Judge John Alexander Jameson described the constitutional commission as "a novel device."[2]

Some 90 years later, Albert L. Sturm offered the following observation:

Increasing use of the constitutional commission as an auxiliary device for initiating both major and minor changes is one of the most significant developments in the procedure of modernizing state constitutions. Constitutional commissions were developed initially, and have been used primarily, as auxiliary staff arms of state legislative assemblies. Their principal function has been to provide expert advice on constitutional problems and issues and to propose and draft amendments, revisions, and even entire constitutions. The 1968 Florida Constitution was the first state organic law to accord constitutional status to the commission as a formal method of proposing constitutional change.[3]

The 1968 Florida Constitution has more methods of amendment than any other state constitution.(4) Article XI provides that the electorate may adopt revisions or amendments to the constitution in a general election.[5] Amendments may be placed on the ballot by any of the following methods: 1) adoption of a joint resolution by three-fifths of the membership of the House and Senate;[6] 2) recommendation of the Constitution Revision Commission (commission), which meets every 20th year since 1978;[7] 3) citizen initiative;[8] 4) recommendation of a constitutional convention;[9] and 5) recommendation of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which meets every tenth year since 1980.[10]

Of particular note for this issue is the second.[11] Paragraph (c) of Article XI, [sections] 2 of the constitution states, in toto,

Each constitution revision commission shall convene at the call of its chairman, adopt its rules of procedure, examine the constitution of the state, except for matters relating directly to taxation or the state budgetary process that are to be reviewed by the taxation and budget reform commission established in section 6, hold public hearings, and, not later than one hundred eighty days prior to the next genera] election, file with the secretary of state its proposal, if any, of a revision of this constitution or any part of it.[12]

F.S. [sections] 101.161 states, in pertinent part,

Whenever a constitutional amendment or other public measure is submitted to the vote of the people, the substance of such amendment or other public measure shall be printed in clear and unambiguous language on the ballot after the list of candidates, followed by the word "yes" and also by the word "no," and shall be styled in such a manner that a "yes" vote will indicate approval of the proposal and a "no" vote will indicate rejection. The wording...