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By Sam Hodges
If it’s broke, don’t fix it, just make it bigger.
And make it bigger in ways that protect the special interests, not the
people.
Such has been the prevailing philosophy of Alabama politicians
in their stewardship of the state constitution that debuted in 1901
and remains in effect hundreds of amendments later.
As much as any state, Alabama deserves a fundamental law
that clearly, concisely and inspiringly sets forth the rights of citizens
and the limits of government authority. What Alabama has is almost the
mirror opposite.
The 1901 constitution isn’t clear or concise, and
it inspires only the Virginia company that has the printing contract
for it. This past election, voters had 26 constitutional amendments
to consider - 19 of them local in nature. The cluttered ballot was only
the most recent evidence that there is something seriously wrong with
the way Alabama treats its fundamental law.
Consider these details:
The constitution is roughly 175,000 words, about the size
of "Moby Dick" (minus a few whaling chapters), and more than twice as
long as any other state constitution. William Stewart, a political scientist
at the University of Alabama and an authority on the Alabama Constitution,
believes it is the longest constitution in the world.
It has been amended more than 550 times, far more than
any other state constitution. One amendment alone - the amendment establishing
the "Forever Wild" program - is longer than the entire U.S. Constitution.
The 1901 constitution teems with special exemptions and
privileges granted to particular cities, counties, industries and interest
groups. In truth, it’s not one constitution but dozens of constitutions
that apply unequally across the state. All kinds of interest groups,
from the teachers’ union to large landholders to bond lawyers,
find protection and cover within it.
Montgomery rule, not home rule, is favored in the Alabama
Constitution. Decisions that might be made by county commissions and
other local bodies instead are routed through Montgomery, where lobbyists
patrol the corridors of power.
The 1901 constitution handicaps governance by dictating
where revenues go, limiting property taxes and establishing unrealistic
debt limits, and by forcing the Legislature to spend much of its time
on local matters rather than on areas in which the state has traditionally
lagged: education, health, nonexploitive economic development, environmental
protection and infrastructure.
The 1901 constitution is not citizen friendly, both because
of its length and because it fails to allow citizen participation through
ballot initiative and recall of elected officials. The termlimits debate
that rages elsewhere is barely a murmur in Alabama, because citizens
have no constitutional way to get around a Legislature that doesn’t
want to curb its own power.
The 1901 constitution retains provisions that are racist
and sexist. Those provisions have been superseded by federal court decisions,
but the language remains in the state constitution. Minority children
- and all girls - don’t have to read the history books to see that
their state once would have prevented them from voting as grownups.
The constitution tells them.
Familiarity breeds contempt when it comes to the 1901 constitution.
Those who know it best respect it least. And they insist that it’s
not just an awkward and inconveniently long document, but one that really
gets in the way of good government.
Former Gov. Albert Brewer, who teaches a course on the
state constitution at Samford University’s Cumberland School of
Law, labels it an "obstacle" to any statewide elected official trying
to deal with abiding problems in education, health and economic development.
"Here we are approaching the 21st century, and we’ve got
a constitution that was written for an agricultural economy, and was
really written to preserve the power of those agricultural interests,"
Brewer said.
Study of the Alabama Constitution has been depressing for
Stewart, the political scientist and author of two books on Alabama’s
fundamental law.
"You’re just overwhelmed by the length of the thing,
and by how trivial so much of it is," he said. "It’s no cause at
all for pride or respect. ... If we had a higher respect for our state
constitution, we wouldn’t spend so much time trying to get around
it."
Milo Dakin is a longtime lobbyist in Montgomery, and
as such is familiar with the constitution’s length and complexity,
and ways it can be used to protect special interests. He’s not
above using it to a client’s advantage, but he is as scornful of
the document as anybody.
"When you think about the U.S. Constitution, you think
about a beautiful document, something that’s almost like poetry,"
he said. "That’s not what comes to mind when you discuss the Alabama
Constitution. What comes to mind is a junk heap where people keep piling
refuse on top. And no one wants to haul it off because it’s almost
gotten too big to drag."
Return to: The
Legacy of Misplaced Power - Contents
Next: Political Reformers Try and Fail
Reprinted with Permission from the Mobile Register.
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