How do state constitutions differ from the US Constitution?

#Length

Ballotpedia puts the US Constitution, with its amendments, at 7,591 words and the average state constitution at about 39,000. Estimates published by the Council of State Governments, as of January 1, 2023, run from 8,565 words in Vermont to about 373,000 in Alabama.

#How often they change

The National Archives lists 27 amendments to the US Constitution. Some state counts, as of January 1, 2023, reach far higher. Some states have also started over with a new constitution more than once.

#How amendments pass

The US Constitution’s Article V requires proposal by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or a convention, then ratification by three-fourths of the states. State routes differ, and this count comes from Ballotpedia:

• Legislature: available in all 50 states. In 36 of the 49 states with a public vote, one legislative session is enough, while 9 require approval in two sessions and 4 depend on the size of the vote.
• Citizen initiative: allowed in 18 states. Signature rules vary, and the ballot measures explainer covers them.
• Convention: in 14 states, the constitution calls for a regular ballot question on holding one.
• Commission: a state constitution can set up a revision commission to propose changes.

Delaware’s legislature amends its constitution with a two-thirds vote in two successive General Assemblies, with no public vote.

#What they can add

State constitutions can cover subjects the US Constitution does not mention. A state constitution can, for example, make providing for the education of children a duty of the state. Limits still apply. Article VI makes valid federal law supreme, so these additions cannot override it.

#A shopping center case: 1980

In California, people gathering signatures for a petition at a privately owned shopping center were told to leave under its rules. In 1972, the US Supreme Court had held that the First Amendment does not stop a private shopping center from barring handbills unrelated to its business. The California Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution does protect reasonable speech and petitioning in such centers.

The owner appealed, and on June 9, 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled against the owner in PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins. The 1972 reasoning did not limit a state’s “sovereign right to adopt in its own Constitution individual liberties more expansive than those conferred by the Federal Constitution.” The Court also held that the state rule did not violate the owner’s federal property or speech rights.