The Wisconsin Constitution contains a brief preamble and fourteen articles detailing the state government, its powers, and its limitations.
In 1846, the residents of Wisconsin Territory first voted to apply for statehood, and they elected 124 representatives to meet in Madison to author a state constitution.
The document gave married women the right to own property and allowed for a public referendum to settle the issue of African American suffrage.
The Constitution begins with the following preamble: We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings, form a more perfect government, insure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare, do establish this constitution.The first article of the Wisconsin constitution outlines the legal rights of state citizens.
Among these are sections which prohibit slavery, prohibit imprisonment for debt, guarantee resident aliens the same property rights as citizens, affirm that the military is subordinate to civil authorities, allow for the use of state owned school buildings by civil and religious organizations during non-school hours, and guarantee the right of citizens to hunt and fish.
The legislature is also prohibited from passing legislation affecting certain private business, such as voting to change a person's name.
The constitution was amended in 1930 to grant the governor a uniquely powerful line-item veto on appropriation bills.
Article VI also describes rules for various elected officials on the county level, including sheriffs, coroners, registers of deeds, and district attorneys.
Finally, the legislature is granted power to form municipal courts with jurisdiction over individual cities, villages, and towns in the state.
Wisconsin's constitution also has a separate impeachment-like option for judicial officers called "removal by address".
If an amendment is introduced via the legislature, its passing requires a lengthy three-vote process: The original copy of the 1848 document is missing.
[6] Soon after it was drafted, the original document was submitted to a printer named Horace A. Tenney of Madison, who produced three certified copies.
[7] The first mass printing occurred when printer Beriah Brown issued it in pamphlet form, of which a color facsimile is available for viewing on the website of the state's Historical Society.
Although the Beriah Brown printing was laced with many printers' errors and important textual inaccuracies, it was what state residents of the time read when they voted to endorse a Wisconsin constitution in 1848.