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By Phillip Rawls
The Associated Press
3/12/03 7:59 PM

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The newly elected Alabama Legislature took its first look at revising the 1901 constitution Wednesday, with about half the eligible lawmakers showing up to hear experts on America's longest state constitution.

   The House and Senate Constitution and Elections committees began joint hearings Wednesday on constitutional revision. The hearings are scheduled each Wednesday for five weeks.

   Sen. Jeff Enfinger, chairman of the Senate committee, said he was not disappointed that about half of the committee members did not attend.

   "There are a lot of other things that are going on," said Enfinger, D-Huntsville.

   One committee member who did attend, Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said he hopes the committee's work -- as well as work being done by Gov. Bob Riley's various task forces -- will lead to a special session of the Legislature where changes in state taxes and the state constitution will be considered.

   During the last four-year term, the Legislature discussed calling a constitutional convention to rewrite the entire constitution and considered rewriting the constitution article by article, but the lawmakers never reached an agreement on how to proceed.

   Bailey Thomson, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Alabama and a leader of constitutional reform efforts, told the legislative committees that Alabama's 1901 constitution was designed to eliminate black participation in government.

   Alabama voters narrowly approved the constitution in a statewide referendum, but Thomson said there was "the certainty of fraud." The "official" election returns indicate that most black voters in west-central Alabama voted to give up their voting rights -- a sure sign that someone tampered with the results, Thomson said.

   Some legislative leaders and the governor have advocated rewriting parts of the 1901 constitution rather than creating a new document through a constitutional convention.

   Bryan Fair, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Alabama, told the committee that the 1901 constitution "is not a document we should cling to."

   Besides disenfranchising blacks, its poor design makes it hard for the average person to read and understand, Fair said.

   "The Alabama constitution today is a full employment bill for lawyers," the law professor said.
John Eidsmoe, a professor of constitutional law at Faulkner University in Montgomery and a member of the governor's Citizens' Commission on Constitutional Revision, said, "The 1901 constitution looks worse than it actually is."

   He said the document was once racist, but court decisions and constitutional amendments have negated the racist provisions.

  "Is it a racist constitution today? The answer is definitely not," Eidsmoe said.

   He advocated making limited changes, but opposed scrapping the whole document.

   In a related development, the governor's constitution commission will meet Friday in Montgomery to vote on recommendations it will make to Riley.

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