Constitution of Tennessee


The Constitution of the State of Tennessee defines the form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules of the U.S. State of Tennessee.
The original constitution of Tennessee came into effect on June 1, 1796, concurrent with the state's admission to the Union. A second version of the constitution was adopted in 1835. A third constitution was adopted in 1870 and is the one still in use today, with subsequent amendments. The constitution is located in Tennessee's State Library and Archives.

History

1796 constitution

Tennessee held a convention in 1796 to frame their first constitution. The original Tennessee state constitution was not submitted to the voters for approval, but it was approved by US Congress, in conjunction with the resolution admitting Tennessee as a state. It went into effect on June 1, 1796, when Tennessee entered the Union.
The first constitution was widely criticized as giving the executive, presumably a full-time governor, insufficient authority, and investing too much authority in the legislature a part-time body. That was cited as a primary reason for its replacement.
The 1796 constitution also did not create a state supreme court, providing only for "such superior and inferior courts" as the legislature should create, with judges elected by the legislature for indefinite terms.
In spite of its shortcomings, the original document had its admirers. Thomas Jefferson described Tennessee's as the "least imperfect and most republican of the state constitutions."

1835 constitution

The second Tennessee State Constitution, adopted in 1835, resulted from a state constitutional convention that convened in Nashville on May 19, 1834, with 60 delegates in attendance. William Carter, of Carter County, presided over the 1834 convention.
Antislavery interests petitioned the convention to abolish slavery, which was rejected by the convention delegates. The constitution adopted increased opportunities for citizens to engage in the political process, but it limited suffrage to white males. Similarly to other southern states, such as Virginia, it disfranchised free black men, who had had the right to vote under the 1796 constitution. That followed fears raised by Nat Turner's Rebellion in 1831.
The second constitution provided for a state supreme court, with three judges, with one judge from each grand division of the state. Judges were required to be at least 35 years old and would serve 12-year terms.
The constitution was ratified by voters in March 1835, receiving 42,666 votes for it and 17,691 against it.

1870 constitution

The Tennessee General Assembly, on November 15, 1869, called for an election to be held in December 1869 for two purposes: to determine if a constitutional convention should be called to amend or replace the 1835 constitution and to elect delegates to that convention if the voters determined that it was to be held. The voters decided for the convention, which began on January 10, 1870. The convention adjourned on February 23, 1870, after adopting the constitution and recommending its approval by the voters in a special election, which was conducted on March 26, 1870.
The third document was largely written as a response to the requirement for all ex-Confederates to adopt new constitutions explicitly banning slavery. It contains many provisions that are verbatim holdovers from the two predecessor documents. It is considerably longer than the federal constitution but is not particularly long by the standards of state constitutions. This 1870 document stood unamended until 1953, which, according to the Tennessee Blue Book, was the longest period that any such document had remained in effect without amendment anywhere in the world.
Tennessee held limited constitutional conventions in 1953, 1959, 1965, 1971, and 1977.

Main provisions

The constitution's preamble is much longer than its counterpart in the federal Constitution. Much of that length is devoted to justifying the authority behind the new constitution: that the new constitution was created under the authority of the constitution of 1835, which was itself created under the authority of the 1796 convention.

Declaration of Rights

Article I, is Tennessee's bill of rights. It mimics many of the US Bill of Rights, but the provisions describing them are generally much lengthier. The provisions in this article state:
Sections 16 and 27 are among those directly copied from the federal Constitution. Section 8 closely follows the wording of the Magna Carta.
The article's provisions regarding slavery are also significant, as they both prohibit slavery in the same manner as the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and forbid the legislature from making any "law recognizing the right of property in man." Some construe the latter provision as prohibiting any form of indentured servitude.

Less usual declarations

Besides the more common rights, a few other rights are enumerated:
  • Citizens are granted "an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper".
  • Imprisonment for civil debt may not be carried out.
  • Martial law may never be declared
  • Anyone may travel on the Mississippi River, and the right to do so may not be sold to or barred from anyone.

    Separation of powers

Legislative branch

The lawmaking power of the state is given to its Legislature, named the General Assembly. The upper house is the Senate and the lower house is the House of Representatives.
The basis for legislative representation is population, as determined by the US Census; however the General Assembly can always use other, non-population factors to apportion one house unless the US Constitution is currently authoritatively interpreted to forbid that, as it currently is under Reynolds v. Sims.
The lower house is fixed at 99 members, which are to be divided up among counties; if one county has more than one representative, the affected counties shall be divided up into districts, causing all representatives to be elected from single-member constituencies. A county may not be split into separate counties to do that.
The upper house is to be set up in the same manner, but its size is variable, up to a third of the size of the lower house, which was fixed at 99, as noted above. In practice, the Tennessee Senate always had 33 members, the maximum allowed.
The first election to the Legislature was to take place on the second Tuesday of November 1870 and then every two years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday, and all such elections shall take place only on that day.
Representatives have to be 21 years old, US citizens, state citizens for three years, and county citizens for at least one year before election day. Senatorial requirements are different only in that senators must be at least 30 years old. Also, no one from either house may be appointed to any office by the executive or legislative branches unless it is as a "trustee of a literary institution".
Both houses may imprison people who disrupts their proceedings.
The legislative provisions include the requirement that no bill may be broader than its caption, and it may have only one subject. Tennessee courts have interpreted that to mean that no bill can contain non-germane material, and no caption can include the words "and for other purposes". The General Assembly, therefore, can pass no "omnibus" bills.
Also banned were some business practices that had previously gotten the state into trouble, such as allowing municipalities to lend money to railroads for them to pay off bonds on which they had previously defaulted and the election or appointment of people who were still responsible for public money.
Section 28 describes the General Assembly's power to levy taxes.
For a municipality to issue bonds or borrow money on behalf of a private business or individual, the passage of a referendum was required, with the unusually stringent provision of a three-quarters majority, but that was to be delayed for ten years in 26 named counties, where the requirement would be a simple majority until then. The period between May 6, 1861 and January 1, 1867 was not to be counted against any statute of limitations, as civil government in much of the state had broken down during that period because of the American Civil War.

Executive branch

Article III allows the governor to serve a two-year term, which was superseded by 1953 amendments. The executive branch is empowered with a line-item veto, but a majority of all members in each house may override the veto, which is the same vote required to enact the bill initially. The governor is the head of the state militia, but he may not exercise that power unless the General Assembly authorizes him to do so when "the public safety requires it".
There are twenty-two departments that operate under the executive branch; the departments are: