This essay is part of 50 states series Regarding the national constitution. We asked state experts to jump into the constitution, tell them their history, identify their habits, and summarise the most important elements for our readers.
Florida’s constitution, like many state constitutions, has some unique features. Perhaps the best known is the various ways to fix it. Five ways to include two revision committees.
But it was not always that flexible. The closure of the current constitution of a state, drafted and ratified in 1968, was an explicit response to the lack of general input available to amend the previous constitution adopted in 1885, and amendments to that constitution could only be placed on the vote through Congress, leading to the acute issues of mid-20th century expression and growth management.
Florida’s current constitution is the sixth state, and counting the constitution of 1865, the US Congress did not approve because its drafters were unable to include the right to vote for non-white men.
The first Florida Constitution was adopted in 1838 as one of the territorial requirements of the state, achieving the state. Florida was then and for decades it was a relatively undeveloped and difficult to live in. Most of the hundreds of thousands of residents lived within 50 miles of Georgia and Alabama, and like other Southerns, they maintained their livelihoods primarily from agriculture.
Twenty-three years later, Florida adopted a new constitution to reflect its separation from the United States. Later, after the Confederates lost the civil war, Florida had to create another new constitution. The first iteration of this was the failed constitution of 1865. The next version, created under the Reconstruction in 1868, provides for the right to vote for men of color, and the Seminoles members have one (non-voting) seat in each house of the Congress.
However, seventeen years later, another post-restructuring treaty ruled by white separatists created a constitution that rejected the 1868 version. In this 1885 constitution, executives consisted of seven independently elected positions throughout the state. One of these, the governor, could not make himself a success, but many others have been re-elected for decades.
The 1885 Constitution also separated school education and marriage between blacks and whites, allowing poll taxes. The judicial system was not uniform, and Congress only met for 60 days every two years. It restricted how legislative districts are allocated and restricted the amendment process to Congress. The allocation constraints meant that even as the population shifted to southern cities, groups of rural northern lawmakers could increasingly remain in power over city-states.
Redistribution was desperately necessary, but strict constitutional restrictions and established legislators made the job nearly impossible. However, after the US Supreme Court decided in 1962 Baker v. carwhich allowed federal courts to intervene in state allocation schemes, ultimately leading to a voting standard for each and every person within the constituency.
In a grouch, acknowledging the inevitability of reallocation, the 1965 Congress approved the formation of a Constitutional Amendment Committee. Its members draft a new constitution for Congress to approve the vote. But before Congress considered the draft, the U.S. Supreme Court overridden the Congressional allocation scheme, and the U.S. District Court created a new scheme. The newly, well allocated Congress approved the draft constitution with little change, and in 1968 people adopted it.
Declaration of rights
The Florida Constitution’s Declaration of Rights contains several rights that do not expressly exist in the U.S. Constitution, but strangely, it also includes those that have been amended to track U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence.
The most popular right in recent years is the right to privacy in Article 1, Section 23. In that section, “All natural persons have the right to be released from government invasion.” The right was approved by voters in 1980 and was voted on by a joint resolution of the Congress. In 1989, the Florida Supreme Court was held. re tw. The Florida Constitution’s right to privacy covers the right of women to choose whether to continue pregnancy until term (before viability), causing public controversy. The court was split into narrow questions before that, but whether the minor needed parental consent before obtaining an abortion – the court was unanimously determined that the privacy amendment protects the rights of adults.
After the US Supreme Court was overturned Roev. Wade In 2022, Florida Legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban, declaring that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. A year later, the ban was completed for six weeks on the condition that the 15-week ban would be effective if they survived the court’s agenda. (Each law contained narrow exceptions.) That challenge came, and on April 1, 2024, the Florida Supreme Court, with 6-1 opinions, upheld the 15-week ban and reversed it. re tw And I believe that the 1980 right to privacy was never intended to protect a woman’s right to choose whether to continue pregnant or not.
The Civic Initiative, which constitutionally protected the ability of a woman to decide whether or not to continue her pregnancy until feasible, was defeated in November 2024. We received 57% of the vote, but Florida needs 60% to amend the constitution. Therefore, a small number of voters carried the day. Florida is one of three states that require revisions to receive votes that are more than a simple majority when they appear on the ballot.
Multiple ways to fix it
It is rare that the Florida Constitution can be amended in so many different ways. Amendments to the 1885 constitution can only be placed by Parliament (or by calling for a constitutional treaty). The drafters of the 1968 document found that this restrictive view of the revision could not include the amendments that people wanted, rather than special interests. The result was a new constitution that could amend four ways, both by voter approval of the amendments proposed by the Constitutional Convention and Congress, and by civic initiatives and methods specific to Florida at the time. Florida later approved the fifth method, the automatically-occurring taxation and budget reform committee. Both committees take place every 20 years for decades.
Separation of force
Florida’s separation of power clauses is more severe than the provisions of the US Constitution. Section 3, Section 3 states that “a person belonging to one branch shall not exercise any authority relating to any of the other branches unless expressly provided here.” Nonetheless, Florida’s current governor Ron DeSantis (R) tested the limits of governoral power by requiring Congress to adopt his 2022 Congressional allocation map under the threat of veto. However, administrative agencies are spreading, with the Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer and Agriculture Chair being independently elected statewide, and not seen by the governor.
Justice
The Judiciary Division provides that the appeal judges – the judges of the Court of Appeals and the judges of the Supreme Court – are appointed by the governor. For each jurisdiction, the Judicial Nomination Committee (which its members are selected or approved by the Governor) reviews all applicants, determines who is eligible, and nominates three to six applicants for consideration by the Governor. Trial judges with two levels are elected on a nonpartisan basis. However, if a vacancy occurs during the judicial period, the judge’s successor will be selected by the nomination committee in the same way as the appeal judge.
Power struggle
For over 50 years, Florida’s constitution has been designed to transfer power from the government to the people, and instead has seen this power spread. Congress steadily passed laws that made the initiative process even more difficult, and has made it difficult to implement constitutional amendments that were usually passed as a result of the initiative. One example is an amendment adopted in 2018, which restored the right to vote for those convicted in 2018 but who completed “all terms of sentence, including parole or probation.” (People convicted of certain felony such as murder were not eligible for restoration of their rights.) Congress has enacted laws that define “all terms” and may include difficult court costs assessed by defendants, including so-called legal financial obligations, many of which are generally converted into civil judgments. Therefore, restoring voting rights is being legislated to require financial ability to pay civil judgments.
The overthrow of the people of Congress effectively shifted power from Florida citizens to government. Power shifting means a struggle of power. So far, government power gains have not been checked.
Mary E. Adkins is Professor Emerita at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. She writes extensively about the Florida Constitution; Creating Modern Florida: How the spirit of reform shaped the new constitution.
Suggested Quote: Mary E. Adkins, Florida Constitution: For the People?sᴛᴛᴇcᴏᴜʀᴛrᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (April 29, 2025), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/florida-constitution-people