1. New Jersey may not seem a hotbed of constitutional government, but its founders created some important constitutional innovations in the (literal) hours before we declared independence. This week we look at the Garden State’s constitutional history. #50Weeks50Constitutions
2. The Colonies were in rebellion. Independence loomed. Anarchy threatened at the gates. So NJ’s revolutionary Provincial Congress assigned a committee to write a constitution to enforce some kind of order “for regulating the internal policy of this Colony.”
3. The committee began meeting on June 24, 1776 and adopted a full constitution on July 2. Of course, American history nerds know that that is the day—NOT July 4—that independence was declared in Philadelphia.
4. But perhaps the NJ folks weren’t quite as committed as those in Philly. Like New Hampshire & South Carolina before them, the constitution stated that “if Reconciliation between Great Britain & these Colonies should take place” then the document “shall be null & void.”
5. The constitution lacked a bill of rights, but did have some interesting rights provisions. For ex, it had the 1st “Privileges or Immunities Clause” in U.S. history, protecting “every privilege & immunity, enjoyed by others” for all Protestants (Catholics weren’t so lucky...). 
6. It also had a right to vote for “all Inhabitants . . . of full Age, who are worth Fifty Pounds.” Legislation in 1790 interpreted this to include women & free blacks. But, the legislation was repealed in 1807. Full suffrage had to wait over 100 years for the 19th Amendment.
7. All-in-all, the 1776 Constitution very much fit the “legislative supremacy” mood of the day. The legislature appointed the governor, and it doesn't say anything about the judiciary as a branch of government.
8. What at the time was thought of as a temporary constitution lasted until 1844. Many “opinion leaders” agitated for years for a new constitution, but the consensus was the people were happy with the existing structure, & to not fix what’s not broke.
9. After the Panic of 1837, though, calls for a new constitution grew. A convention drafted one in 1844, which was adopted. It contained a bill of rights, an elected governor, and other changes that strengthened the separation of powers.
10. Although not a new constitution, NJ adopted a number of important amendments in the 1870s. A big focus on these were setting limits on special legislation, a major target of reformers of that era across the country.
11. The state’s present constitution was adopted in 1947. For the first time, it gave the governor a “real” veto (previously it had only required a majority vote to override) & otherwise strengthened his powers, & guaranteed equal rights for women & collective bargaining.
12. But one big issue was, by agreement, left out: the state senate’s system of equal representation by county. This long-criticized malapportionment of power had to wait for SCOTUS’ one-person-one-vote decisions of the 1960s, before the state courts found it unconstitutional.
13. Sources: Robert Williams, The New Jersey State Constitution (2012); avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/n…; state.nj.us/state/archives…
