Legislative Wrap-up

• Jurisdiction: Alabama,United States
• Citation: Vol. 73 No. 5 Pg. 0366
• Pages: 0366
• Publication year: 2012

LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP
Vol. 73 No. 5 Pg. 366
The Alabama Lawyer
SEPTEMBER, 2012

Othni J. Lathram
olathram@ali.state.al.us

For more information about the
Institute, visit www.ali.state.al.us.

Paul DeMarco

Constitutional Revision

On November 6, 2012 the citizens of the State of Alabama will have a historic opportunity to amend Article XII and Article XIII of the Alabama Constitution. This opportunity is notable not only because it significantly improves the portions of the Alabama Constitution which relate to banking and corporations, but, more importantly, it will provide momentum to the Alabama Constitution Commission's effort to reshape the constitution.

As more fully discussed in this column in January 2012¹ , the legislature created the Constitution Revision Commission in 2011. The Commission is charged with leading the effort to revise the Alabama Constitution on an article-by-article basis. This approach is the only mechanism available to the legislature.²

The article-by-article approach has been successful twice before this. In 1973, Article VI, relating to the judiciary, was revised in an effort led by then Chief Justice Howell Heflin. This approach was followed again in 1996 when Representative Jack Venable led the effort to revise Article VIII, relating to suffrage and elections.

The endeavor to revise Article XII and Article XIII began in 2007, with proposed revised articles being introduced in the legislature each session since. The revisions actually passed one of the houses of the legislature on numerous occasions, but could not get through both houses until 2012. With the installation of the Commission, the effort was re-energized. After some minor tweaking of the proposed revisions to these articles, the Commission recommended their passage and the legislature responded with enormous support by passing both articles with near unanimous votes.

Passage by the legislature of these articles is an important step, but more important is the vote of the people which will occur November 6, 2012. In order for these revised articles to take effect, they must be adopted by the affirmative vote of the citizens of our state. The first step in the process took place June 8^th when Secretary of State Beth Chapman certified the proposed constitutional amendments which will appear on the November 6^th ballot. That certification placed these revisions as Statewide Amendment 9 and Statewide Amendment 10.

The changes proposed in these two revisions are viewed as non-controversial. They do not in any way affect taxes or property rights. Instead, they update antiquated language, repeal provisions that are no longer necessary and consolidate and streamline the...