The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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May 30, 2012

Our View: Easy amendments, a divisive constitutional history

The Free Press

— With two high-profile constitutional amendments on the ballot in November — voter photo ID and a ban on same-sex marriage — many complaints arise that the amendment process has become far too routine. It’s easy to agree that our state tends toward the amendment route far too readily, when our faith would be better placed in the legislative process.

But a glance back at Minnesota constitutional history suggests that the relative ease used to amend our charter isn’t just a recent phenomenon. If we are ever going to get a re-set, an historic perspective is in order.

The Minnesota Constitution was ratified in 1858, but events leading up to it were bitter. The two parties were so divided (slavery chief among them) that they held separate conventions, and the final product was two constitutions — one signed by Republicans and another signed by Democrats. A copy of the Democratic constitution was attached to the bill for the admission of Minnesota to the union (the territorial secretary was a Democrat), but historians have said that the Republican version was “atttached.”

This odd accommodation led, from the start, to a general viewpoint that the state constitution is not to be considered firm, but is eminently changeable. The first two acts passed by the Legislature, in fact, were constitutional changes — one to provide a loan to railroads and another regarding the term of office by the original state officers.

So it was that the Minnesota Constitution approved by Congress on May 11, 1858, was an amended one.

Since then, more than 200 amendments have been proposed to Minnesota voters, and more than half of them have been adopted. Before 1898, amendments required only a majority of both legislative houses to get them in front of voters, and a simple majority of voters could approve them. After 1898, because critics argued special interests were abusing the process, a qualified majority of all who voted in a specific election was needed for amendments to take effect.

But other than the period from 1900 to 1918, when only 10 of 45 amendments were adopted, the rate of passage has been fairly robust. In the 19th century, 73 percent of 66 proposed amendments were passed. Since 1974, 74 percent have been passed (20 of 27).

After a century and a half, constitutional changes are still relatively simple in Minnesota. We’ve grown accustomed to tweaking our governing document by going straight to the voters and will remain so unless we tighten the procedures further.

It’s wrong for elected lawmakers to use the constitution as a legislative tool, as little more than a piece of scratch paper to be revised at every whim.

Historically speaking, however, it was thus at the beginning.

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