Constitution of Alaska
The Constitution of the State of Alaska was ratified on April 4, 1956 and took effect with Alaska's admission to the United States as a U.S. state on January 3, 1959.
History and background
The statehood movement
In the 1940s, the movement for Alaska statehood was gaining momentum within the territory, but stymied by opposition from Lower 48 commercial interests and some members of Congress. Many statehood proponents felt that a well-written constitution would help advance the cause in Washington, D.C.As a result, one of the duties the Alaska Territorial Legislature laid upon the Alaska Statehood Committee, established in 1949, was to "assemble applicable material, make studies and provide recommendations in a timely manner" preparatory to drafting a constitution.
Constitutional convention
On November 8, 1955, 55 elected delegates from across Alaska met at the brand new student union building at the University of Alaska. The building, quickly christened Constitution Hall by the Board of Regents, was temporarily handed over to the delegates who assembled to create the new document at a constitutional convention. Fairbanks was selected as the site instead of Juneau, the territorial capital, to escape the influence of lobbyists and to benefit from the academic setting. The latter consideration was largely influenced by New Jersey's choice of Rutgers University for its 1947 convention.The convention was led by then-territorial Senator William A. Egan, who became the state's first governor. The other delegates, 49 men and six women, included territorial legislators Ralph J. Rivers, who became U.S. Representative from Alaska at-large, and Jack Coghill, who became lieutenant governor. Frank Peratrovich, the mayor of Klawock who was also a territorial legislator, was the only Alaska Native among the delegates. The oldest delegate, Earnest B. Collins, was speaker of the 1st territorial House in 1913. Collins lived in Alaska longer than any delegate except for Peratrovich, having arrived in 1904. The youngest delegate, Thomas C. Harris, had only lived in Alaska for around five years and had been elected by some 150 votes cast in and around the Valdez area. Other delegates who were notable outside of law and politics include: Fairbanks bush pilot Frank Barr; mining engineer and Fairbanks Exploration Company executive John C. Boswell; Swiss emigrant and Kachemak Bay homesteader Yule F. Kilcher; World War II era military officer Marvin R. "Muktuk" Marston; Steve McCutcheon, a photographer whose collection represents a significant documentation of mid-20th century life in Alaska; Leslie Nerland, who took his father's department store in Fairbanks and turned it into a statewide empire, even extending to Hawaii at one point; Barrie M. White, an Anchorage entrepreneur and real estate developer, and Ada Wien, from a pioneer Alaskan and pioneer aviation family.
The constitutional convention was in session for 75 days. The constitution was adopted by the delegates on February 5, 1956. The signing of the constitution the following day attracted nearly 1,000 spectators, so the event was moved to the university's gymnasium and library building. This building was renamed Signers' Hall in the late 1980s, and presently houses the administration of the current-day University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. One delegate, R. E. Robertson, was absent, having resigned his position in protest of the finished document and returned to Juneau. The constitution was ratified by territorial voters on April 24, 1956, and became effective when the Alaska Statehood Proclamation was signed on January 3, 1959.
Principles
The delegates drew on several sources for inspiration: the National Municipal League's "Model State Constitution" as well as the recently adopted constitutions of Missouri, New Jersey, and Hawaii, and studies by consultants and constitutional law scholars.One of the aims of the delegates was to produce a short, general document, on the model of the United States Constitution. Rather than specify most aspects in minute detail, as did many state constitutions, the delegates chose instead to leave broad authority to future state legislatures. The resulting document is thus only half the average state constitution length of 26,000 words. Much of the language in the new constitution was a reaction against weak territorial institutions. At the same time, a state constitutional reform movement was growing in the United States, and ideas such as the "broad strokes" approach and the unified judiciary of Article IV incorporated leading constitutional thought.
Articles
Preamble
We the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land, in order to secure and transmit to succeeding generations our heritage of political, civil, and religious liberty within the Union of States, do ordain and establish this constitution for the State of Alaska.
Article I: Declaration of Rights
The constitution begins by establishing the basic rights of Alaska's citizens. Much of Article I essentially reiterates the United States Bill of Rights, but includes several original provisions. Section 3 bans discrimination based on "race, color, creed, sex, or national origin". Section 7, which largely mirrors the Due Process protections under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment,extends protection to "persons to fair and just treatment in the course of legislative and executive investigations", a reaction against McCarthyism. Section 22 establishes the right to privacy; the Alaska Supreme Court has interpreted this to protect, among other things, home possession of small amounts of marijuana.