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Editorial August 19, 2001 For more than a year, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform has been making the case for a new state constitution. It's not a hard case to make, given the fundamental flaws of the 1901 document under which the state now lurches along. The organization is now on record in support of a constitutional convention to write the new document, a method surely preferable to having the Legislature do it. Nothing in the Legislature's performance of recent years suggests that Alabamians should be comfortable with having a new constitution drafted in its chambers. Thomas Corts, the president of the organization, contends that the special interest groups which wield such influence in the Legislature would have much less influence in a convention of citizens. That's a point Alabamians should consider. There is precious little to recommend the current constitution. It centralizes power in Montgomery, effectively depriving local governments of authority they ought to have. Drafted largely to disenfranchise the poor, it continues to oppress them. Incredibly, one of its chief defenders is an organization called the Association for Judeo-Christian Values. If any document fails to reflect Judeo-Christian values, it must be the 1901 Constitution. (The irony doubtless is not lost on Corts, who is president of Samford University, a Southern Baptist institution.) Alabama needs a new constitution. A convention is the best way to get it. Return to: Editorials Index |
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Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 34 Montgomery, Alabama 36101-0034 E-mail: accr@constitutionalreform.org |
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