The Constitution of the State of Utah defines the basic form and operation of

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

in Utah.

History

Utahns had drafted seven previous constitutions starting in 1849 as part of repeated attempts to become a state. In 1850, the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

created the Utah territory, with a secular government. Utah was still prohibited from joining the union, due to the practice of

polygamy 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, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

in Utah. In 1890,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

renounced

, which gave Utah permission from the federal government to begin drafting a constitution. 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 or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. The

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

was later approved by the citizens of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. It took several attempts to get a constitution approved by Congress, which admitted Utah as a state in 1896.Paul Wake, Fundamental Principles, Individual Rights, and Free Government: Do Utahns Remember How to Be Free?
/ref> During the

2024 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. In 2024 United States presidential election, the presidential election, former Republican President Donald Trump, seeking a non-consecutive second term ...

, Utah legislatures attempted to pass an amendment to the Utah constitution that would give power over ballot measures to lawmakers.

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 pri ...

. 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, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...

was to be eight people at most (unless for a trial of a person charged with a

capital crime Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

) and seven for a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...

, and four for inferior courts. *

Spousal privilege In common law, spousal privilege (also called marital privilege or husband-wife privilege) is a term used in the law of evidence to describe two separate privileges that apply to spouses: the spousal communications privilege and the spousal t ...

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 controver ...

. *

Slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

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

Women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

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 (or lotto) 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 som ...

and other forms of

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

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 A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fun ...

is required to specify the

enactment Enactment may refer to: Law * Enactment of a bill, when a bill becomes law * Enacting formula, formulaic words in a bill or act which introduce its provisions * Enactment (British legal term), a piece of legislation or a legal instrument made u ...

of an act at a time other than the default. * The Governor may call both chambers of the

Utah Legislature The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 st ...

, or only the

Utah State Senate The Utah State Senate is the upper house of the Utah State Legislature, the state legislature (US), state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. The Utah Senate is composed of 29 elected members, each representing one senate district. Each senate ...

, into extraordinary session, but not the House of Representatives alone. * The Governor,

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

, 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 A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, ...

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 ...

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, but also of learners ( ...

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

metric system The metric system is a system of measurement that standardization, standardizes a set of base units and a nomenclature for describing relatively large and small quantities via decimal-based multiplicative unit prefixes. Though the rules gover ...

, 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 ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...

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 of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

ing is explicitly outlawed. * Women and children under the age of 14 are prohibited from working in underground

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

s *

Prison labor Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included invo ...

is prohibited outside of the prison, unless for

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

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 t ...

, special schools,

state prison State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

, 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