Constitution of Virginia
[4] Jefferson later criticized the adopted constitution, believing it lacked sufficient reforms and structural safeguards to ensure a truly balanced republican government.
[5] The 1776 Constitution declared the dissolution of the rule of Great Britain over Virginia and accused England's King George III of establishing a "detestable and insupportable tyranny".
This compounded their dissatisfaction with the apportionment scheme adopted in 1830, which was based on counties rather than population, thus giving disproportionate power to the fewer, but propertied whites who lived in the eastern part of the state and kept a grip on the legislature.
[12] When in 1861, the Virginia legislature voted for secession in the events leading up to the American Civil War, all of the western and several of the northern counties dissented.
[15] After the end of the Civil War, Virginia came briefly under military rule during Reconstruction, with the district commanded by John M. Schofield.
Pursuant to federal Reconstruction legislation, Schofield called for a new constitutional convention to meet in Richmond from December 1867 to April 1868.
An eventual compromise provided for separate voting disenfranchisement clauses and the rest of the Constitution; the former failed to win approval.
They passed Jim Crow laws establishing racial segregation in public facilities and restricting the lives of blacks.
Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, legislatures began to ratify new constitutions, amendments or electoral laws that disenfranchised African American voters, devising means such as poll taxes, literacy tests and residential requirements that passed Supreme Court review but worked against poor blacks and many poor whites.
By the turn of the 20th century, six Southern states had essentially eliminated the black vote, and pressure mounted among whites in Virginia to do the same, ostensibly as a way to stop electoral fraud and corruption.
Members were focused on restricting black voting rights without violating the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or disenfranchising poor whites.
[20] Led by the future Senator Carter Glass, the convention created requirements that all prospective voters had to pay poll taxes or pass a literacy test administered by white registrars.
[22] Other significant provisions of the 1902 Constitution imposed racial segregation in public schools (which already existed on a de facto basis) and abolished the county court system.
[23] Because of concern over African American opposition, the convention did not honor its pledge to have the proposed constitution put to popular vote.
In 1968 a joint resolution of the Virginia General Assembly approved a new commission, chaired by former Governor Albertis Harrison, to revise the constitution.
[26] The Commission on Constitutional Revision presented its report and recommendations to Governor Godwin and the General Assembly in January 1969, and continued to work with them to draft a final consensus version.
[27] The proposed Constitution was overwhelmingly approved by the voters of Virginia (who by then included African American men and women, following passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s) and took effect on July 1, 1971.
Since 1971, additional amendments have been passed by the General Assembly and approved by the voters to conform to provisions in the U.S. Constitution, rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and Congressional statute.
Additionally, the Virginia Constitution now provides for a General Assembly session following a governor's veto, and the right of the people to hunt, fish and harvest game is guaranteed.
[31] On November 7, 2006, Virginia voters ratified an amendment, previously approved by the General Assembly, prohibiting same-sex marriage, to be added to the Bill of Rights.
The Virginia Attorney General issued an opinion stating that the amendment does not change the legal status of documents such as contracts, wills, or Advanced Medical Directives between unmarried people.
Article III has one section, confirming the principle of separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
The original §14 of Article IV forbade the incorporation of churches, though the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision, in its 1969 report, had recognized that the prohibition was probably invalid.
Article VII of the Constitution sets up the basic framework for the structure and function of local government in Virginia.
Section 4 establishes the constitutional offices of treasurer, sheriff, Commonwealth's Attorney, clerk of court and Commissioner of the Revenue to be elected within each city and county in Virginia.
A compulsory and free primary and secondary public education for every Virginia child is the focus of Article VIII.
The General Assembly is empowered to determine the funding for the educational system and apportion the cost between state and local government.
Any revisions or amendments proposed by the constitutional convention are presented to the citizens of Virginia and become law upon approval by a majority of voters.
There is a perennial discussion over Virginia's unique Constitutional status restricting its governor to one consecutive term, and its method of selecting both trial and appellate judges by state legislature, shared only with South Carolina.
